Because Christchurch is the second largest urban area in New Zealand, it should come as no surprise that between July 2008 and June 2009, over five million people traveled through Christchurch Airport. As a result of the passenger traffic it receives, it’s no surprise that Christchurch Airport is a busy place. And because the airport wants to make traveling as painless for passengers as possible, they offer a wide range of services directly in their terminal, including car rentals.

Because Dollar Rent a Car and Thrifty Car Rental are both owned by Chrysler, it’s common for only one of the companies to be located at an airport. In the case of Christchurch Airport, the company located there is Thrifty.

Making a rental car reservation through Thrifty.com is not a difficult process. Simply type “CHRISTCHURCH APO, NEW ZEALAND” into the “Pick-up Location” box, and then enter your “Pick-up” and “Return” dates and times. After you hit “Get Rates,” you will be presented with a list of available options.

To give you an idea of their rates, I searched for a reservation for 10/11 to 10/15. Thrifty returned five options for me; two economy, two mid-size and a full-size. In order, the total base rate for each vehicle was $288, $326, $326, $372 and $390. Since my search was for a five day trip, this works out to between $72 and $97.50 a day. If you’re planning a trip for November or even farther in the future, you should be able to secure an even better rate by making your reservation now.