Hertz filed for bankruptcy protection Friday, unable to withstand the coronavirus pandemic that has crippled global travel and with it, the heavily indebted 102-year-old car rental company's business.
The Estero, Florida-based company's lenders were unwilling to grant it another extension on its auto lease debt payments past a Friday deadline, triggering the filing in U.S.
Bankruptcy Court in Delaware. Hertz and its subsidiaries will continue to operate, according to a release from the company. By the end of March, Hertz Global Holdings Inc.
had racked up $18.7 billion in debt with only $1 billion of available cash. Starting in mid-March, the company — whose car-rental bands also include Dollar and Thrifty — lost all revenue when travel