Does the PBI to DJT airport code change affect car rental searches?
Yes, at least on one major booking site. An industry test reported by Auto Rental News on 15 September 2026 found that searching for a rental at Palm Beach under the old code (PBI) and the new code (DJT) returned largely different sets of brands and vehicles. If you are renting in West Palm Beach, Florida, search under both codes, or by city name, before you book.
This is one test on one site, run for one set of dates. It shows a risk, not a confirmed fault on every platform.
What changed at the airport, and when?
The change came in two steps:
9 July 2026: Palm Beach International Airport was officially renamed President Donald J. Trump International Airport, as required by Chapter 2026-15, Laws of Florida.
18 August 2026: The airport's IATA code officially changed from PBI to DJT. IATA is the International Air Transport Association, which assigns the three-letter codes printed on tickets and baggage tags.
The airport says the move changes nothing about how it is run. The name change does not alter ownership, governance, legal status or operational control of the airport. Nor has the airport moved. It is still at 1000 James L. Turnage Blvd., West Palm Beach, FL 33406.
Airport codes rarely change. According to the IATA site, such codes are "almost never changed" and then only with strong justification, primarily concerning air safety. Booking systems built on the assumption that codes are permanent may take time to catch up.
What did the car rental search test find?
The test was run by Robin Brand, partnerships manager at Movly, a rental company. He checked rental availability on Kayak using both airport codes for the same 13–20 October rental period. The results:
| Search code | Vehicles returned | Brands shown |
|---|---|---|
| PBI | 136 | Alamo, Avis, Budget, Enterprise, FlexWays, Fox, Movly, National and Payless |
| DJT | 146 | Ace, Dollar, Europcar, Hertz, Sixt, Thrifty and Turo |
Easirent was the only rental company that appeared in both searches. Brand also reported different car counts, different brands and different prices between the two.
Auto Rental News reads this as a sign that some rental inventory may still be mapped to the former PBI code while other inventory has migrated to DJT. In plain terms, a search under one code may simply not show some suppliers that have cars at the same airport.
Who does this affect?
Anyone flying into West Palm Beach and planning to pick up a car at the airport. That includes visitors heading to Palm Beach County who book through airline sites, travel apps or comparison tools.
The problem is about visibility. A missing brand in your results does not mean that brand has no cars there. It may only mean its listings sit under the other code. Prices also differed between the two searches, so a search under one code could leave you comparing a partial market.
What should a traveller do differently?
Short of waiting for platforms to fix the mapping, there are a few practical steps.
Run the search twice. Use the same dates and times, once with PBI and once with DJT. Compare the brands and prices side by side.
Try the city name. Airline systems have accepted the old code as well as the new one. Major U.S. carriers began putting DJT on their booking pages, though consumers searching for flights can still use the old PBI code. Searching "West Palm Beach" may surface both, but check that it does.
Check the pickup address on your confirmation. Suppliers themselves label the airport inconsistently. Enterprise's location page, for example, gives the name President Donald J. Trump Intl. Airport with PBI in brackets. Make sure the pickup location on your voucher is the airport terminal you are flying into, and not a city branch.
Keep the airport's shuttle or counter details. Some suppliers at this airport use off-site shuttles. Easirent's page, for instance, tells renters to follow signs to the rental shuttle pickup area. Read the pickup instructions for your chosen supplier.
Do not assume a cheaper result is the cheapest. If one code returns fewer suppliers, its lowest price is only the lowest among those suppliers.
You can also run a search on Cars Renta's live price search and check the pickup location shown on each offer. Bookings are completed with the booking partner, not Cars Renta, so any change to a reservation goes through them. For how the final price is built, see how rental pricing works.
Is this a one-off, or could it happen elsewhere?
It is unusual. Airport renamings are common, but a change to the IATA code itself is not. That is why the gap may be temporary. Auto Rental News advised operators to search major booking sites with identical dates, switching between PBI and DJT, and to confirm their inventory feeds link to both codes while platforms update.
The wider point for renters is that a missing supplier in a search can be a data problem as well as a stock problem. When the airport you are flying to has changed its name or code recently, test more than one search.
How current is this story?
The airport was renamed on 9 July 2026, and its code changed on 18 August 2026. The rental search test was reported on 15 September 2026. Since then, platforms may have fixed the mapping. The test used October dates, and this article has not re-run it. Treat the figures above as a snapshot from mid-September, not a live reading.