Scooters rolled out to beat Auckland Airport traffic woes

Budget Avis runner supervisor Trenz Tu'a in action on one of the new electric scooters the company is using to beat Auckland Airport's traffic woes. Photo / Peter Meecham

A rental car company has come up with a novel way to beat the traffic blues at Auckland Airport - scooters.

Avis' Auckland Airport team has bought a small fleet of electric scooters to cut down customer waiting times resulting from growing traffic build-up in the area.

Every time an Avis rental car is returned, a staff member delivers it to their nearby cleaning depot and they are then dropped back to the airport.

This 1.7km round trip should take under 10 minutes but that can be significantly delayed during peak traffic times creating unwanted customer delays.

Avis' new foldable electric scooters are small enough to fit inside the boot of a car when it is delivered to the cleaning depot so the driver can scooter straight back to the airport.

At peak times this will save numerous hours over a day, considerable amounts of fuel, reduce road congestion and crucially, it will cut down the wait time for customers, Avis New Zealand managing director Kathryn O'Neil said.

"I couldn't be prouder of our team," she said. "Judging by the positive reaction already from our customers, I am not the only one who appreciates their Kiwi ingenuity."

Auckland Airport has been dogged with traffic troubles in recent times.

It was announced two weeks ago transport authorities and Auckland Airport have set up a taskforce to tackle traffic chaos that has led to some passengers missing flights.

The NZ Transport Agency, Auckland Transport and the airport company have established a group to find immediate ways to improve travel times and congestion on the roads and state highways to, from and around Auckland Airport.

The move came shortly after the Weekend Herald revealed passengers and airline crew were caught in gridlock, some missing flights and causing delays of close to an hour for some services.

Growing numbers of passengers through the airport, aviation sector staff and workers at associated businesses and cross-town commuters have clogged roads in the area.

The taskforce will review the timing of other projects already planned to improve the performance of the transport network.

The agencies and company said a combination of higher than expected traffic volumes, wet weather, incidents and road improvement projects have created recent delays in the area