Auckland Airport's travel plan lifts the bar

Auckland Airport’s travel plan ‘Lift’ has achieved two major milestones by celebrating its fourth anniversary and giving out its 1,000th priority permit.

Lift, which was established in 2007, is a programme developed by Auckland Airport to help airport employees find more attractive, user-friendly ways of getting to work. Celebrating its fourth anniversary this year, it is one of the longest running travel plans in the Auckland Region.

With over 12,000 people working at the airport, Lift provides practical travel solutions with a key focus on car-pooling. The car-pooling scheme offers priority parking permits to people who register to car-pool with other airport staff. Last week Lift achieved an impressive feat by handing out its 1,000th priority parking permit, issued to Mitchell Davison of Glidepath.

Glidepath manage the airports baggage handling system and are huge supporters of the scheme with 25% of their workforce involved in car-pooling. John Te Whaiti, Mitchell’s car-pooling partner, commented “It’s a great way of reducing money spent on petrol and doing our bit for the environment.”

Martin Fryer, Auckland Airport’s Sustainability Advisor, manages the travel plan and says, “The programme has always been popular with the airport community and results in 180 to 200 cars off the road every day. In 2009 we calculated that equated to over 50 tonnes of carbon per annum.”

“Sustainable Transport to and from the airport is a crucial element of our future development. We have worked very closely with Auckland Transport’s Travelwise programme on the travel plan and will continue to work hard to improve travel options for staff and passengers alike.”

Auckland Airport’s travel plan also received national recognition in 2009 when it won the Shell Transport Award, in the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA) Awards.