A new car rental centre has opened at Portland International Airport eliminating the need for passengers to use shuttle services.

The new facility’s design aims to reflect the Pacific Northwest landscape with its open and spacious layout, warm wooden panels, natural lighting and new art installations celebrating the region's diversity.

The rental car centre benefits from a new technology called CarbonCure, which reduces carbon emissions by permanently trapping more carbon dioxide within concrete. Portland (PDX) is the first in the region to utilise this low-carbon concrete.

Women, minority and veteran-owned businesses provided over $30m in design and construction services as part of the new rental car centre.

Dan Pippenger, chief operating officer at the Port of Portland, which operates the airport, said: “Travelling from PDX to our region just got even easier and more convenient with all of our rental car partners onsite and an easier route through the building. The new rental car centre also gets us one step closer to reducing congestion on our roadways by eliminating rental car shuttles and moving our shared rides to a new location in summer 2022.”

The rental car centre includes three new permanent art installations celebrating the region’s diversity. Ben Butler’s piece is a curved wood installation inspired by the region’s history with Douglas firs; Perez Westbrooks’ 20ft tall and 40ft wide digital arts mural features plants native to the Pacific Northwest; and DeWitt Godfrey has created a sculpture for outside the rental car centre opening in 2022.

PDX currently serves 11 rental car partners, all now within walking distance. These include Alamo, Avis, Budget, Dollar, Enterprise, Hertz, National, Payless, Thrifty, along with new additions Sixt and Zipcar.