Dollar Rent A Car and Thrifty Car Rental to Open in Poland

TULSA, Okla., June 16 -- Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group, Inc. today announced that its successful value brands -- Dollar Rent A Car and Thrifty Car Rental -- are opening locations in Poland for the first time this month.

As part of a master franchise agreement with Armada Fleet Management Service of Warsaw, Dollar and Thrifty opened a dual-branded in-terminal location at Gdansk Lech Walesa Airport this month and plan to be operational in Katowice International Airport later this month. Three more locations are scheduled to open by year-end, including an in-terminal location at Warsaw Frederic Chopin International Airport featuring both the Dollar and Thrifty brands, as well as suburban locations in Gdansk and Warsaw.

Dollar Rent A Car and Thrifty Car Rental in Poland will feature a mix of vehicles and manufacturers, with an emphasis on those of the Toyota Motor Corporation. It is expected that 80 percent of business will be corporate in nature, with 20 percent represented by leisure customers.

Armada Fleet Management Service, operated by Managing Director Grzegorz Lozowski, is the fifth-largest vehicle leasing company in Poland. Founded in 1995, Armada has about 400 short-term and 3,500 long-term lease vehicles in their fleet. The company's principal shareholder also owns the largest Toyota dealership in Poland.

"We are proud to have such a strong company as Armada Fleet Management Service representing the Dollar and Thrifty brands in Poland," said Jeff Cerefice, Vice President, DTG Global Franchise Operations and Development. "Poland represents one of the fastest-growing nations in the European Union, and this is a great opportunity for Dollar and Thrifty to establish a strong foothold in a thriving marketplace."

A dynamically developing country, Poland has a population of about 38 million people, and is the largest country among those recently added to the European Union in central Europe. Poland, in fact, is developing at twice the rate of Western Europe, with a Gross Domestic Product that grew by 5.8 percent in 2006. Warsaw Airport is Poland's busiest airport, handling just under 70 percent of the country's air passenger traffic. Traffic at Gdansk Airport grew 36 percent in 2007 versus the previous year, serving 1.7 million passengers; passenger volumes are expected to grow an additional 31.9 percent in 2008 at Gdansk.