Gatwick Airport triumphs with KINTO Join to save 52 tonnes of CO2
Summary
As part of its initiative to become the UK’s most sustainable airport, Gatwick was the first ariport to launch KINTO Join (then Faxi), an incentivised journey sharing scheme for airport staff.
With the goal of reducing traffic and pollution, the airport management decided to incentivise employees who carpool to work by offering them reserved parking spaces. Within the first 6 months of the launch, the initiative helped them remove 13,548 cars off the roads, amounting to the total of 53,952 cars over the last 3 years.
As of 2019, Gatwick’s 1000-member carpooling community shared 8,140 journeys to:
- Remove 9,211 single-occupancy cars off the roads
- Complete 231,260 shared miles
- Save 52,477 kg of CO2
Summary
As part of its initiative to become the UK’s most sustainable airport, Gatwick was the first airport to launch KINTO Join (then Faxi), an incentivised journey sharing scheme for airport staff.
With the goal of reducing traffic and pollution, the airport management decided to incentivise employees who carpool to work by offering them reserved parking spaces. Within the first 6 month of the launch, the initiative helped them remove 13,548 cars off the roads, amounting to the total of 53,952 cars over the last 3 years.
As of 2019, Gatwick’s 1000-member carpooling community shared 8,140 journeys to:
- Remove 9,211 single-occupancy cars off the roads
- Complete 231,260 shared miles
- Save 52,477 kg of CO2
Challenges
Gatwick Airport has set itself a target to become the UK’s most sustainable airport. As part of this initiative, they set challenging sustainability targets, including the reduction of their carbon emissions and improving their air quality impact using new technology, processes and systems.
As one of Europe’s busiest airports and with a staff base of over 24,000 employees, with 12,000 expected in any 24-hour period, the congestion at Gatwick and local roads is severe. With such a vast pool of employees driving similar routes to work and at similar times, and many of them travelling in vehicles alone, it is easy to see why such unnecessary pollution is a concern for the airport sustainability team.
The environmental impact, however, is not the only consequence of the severe congestion. With so many people driving in alone, the parking situation at Gatwick is also colossal. Although there are 10,000 on-site car parking spaces available for staff, many employees still have to park remotely and use the airport bus service, adding up to 40 minutes to their daily commute.
About Gatwick Airport
Gatwick Airport is the UK’s second largest airport and the most efficient single-runway airport in the world. It serves more than 228 destinations in 74 countries for over 46 million passengers a year on short and long-haul point-to-point services. It is also a major economic driver for the UK contributing £5.3 billion to national GDP and generating 85,000 jobs nationally, with around 24,000 on the wider airport campus alone.
- Gatwick Airport is the World’s busiest and the most efficient single-runway airport
- It saw 46.6 million passengers passing through in 2019
- A total of 24,000 employees work across the entire airport with 12,000 expected in any 24-hour period
How KINTO Join helped
After recognising that offering alternative travel options and resolving employees’ parking problems could help with reducing its drive-alone rates and, consequently, traffic and pollution, Gatwick decided to partner with KINTO Join (then Faxi) in June 2018.
Commuter matching
KINTO Join’s commuter matching algorithm showed that 80% of the workforce could be transported to and from work in pools of three, with colleagues who share similar routes and commute times. If 20 paid drivers could transport 180 co-workers in a two hour rush hour period, it would release 180 parking spaces a day.
By implementing the KINTO Join journey sharing scheme, Gatwick Airport made it easy for its employees to find and connect with other members of the staff who share similar travel routes and work schedules.
The verification of shared journeys
Gatwick chose to reward carpoolers with reserved parking on a daily basis. KINTO Join’s patented verification technology was the key to making this possible as it provided a conclusive proof of carpooling, allowing for a real-time allocation of parking spaces to proven carpoolers.
Users’ carpooling activity is recorded and verified, allowing Gatwick to produce and view a league table of users’ aggregate activity. Each month the top performers are further rewarded by being given the opportunity to upgrade their parking to a carpark of their choice. They must then maintain this level of carpooling to maintain this preferential access.
How KINTO Join journey sharing helped
After recognising that offering alternative travel options and resolving employees’ parking problems could help with reducing its drive-alone rates and, consequently, traffic and pollution, Gatwick decided to partner with KINTO Join (then Faxi) in June 2018.
Commuter matching
KINTO Join’s commuter matching algorithm showed that 80% of the workforce could be transported to and from work in pools of three, with colleagues who share similar routes and commute times. If 20 paid drivers could transport 180 co-workers in a two hour rush hour period, it would release 180 parking spaces a day.
By implementing the KINTO Join journey sharing scheme, Gatwick Airport made it easy for its employees to find and connect with other members of the staff who share similar travel routes and work schedules.
The verification of shared journeys
Gatwick chose to reward carpoolers with reserved parking on a daily basis. KINTO Join’s patented verification technology was the key to making this possible as it provided a conclusive proof of carpooling, allowing for a real-time allocation of parking spaces to proven carpoolers.
Users’ carpooling activity is recorded and verified, allowing Gatwick to produce and view a league table of users’ aggregate activity. Each month the top performers are further rewarded by being given the opportunity to upgrade their parking to a carpark of their choice. They must then maintain this level of carpooling to maintain this preferential access.
Results
Gatwick Airport has become the first airport in the world to provide an alternative transport network for its employees. The Gatwick KINTO Join carpooler community has grown to near 1,000 active users since its launch in 2018 and is continuing to grow at a rate of around 30 new users per month.
The airport is also making substantial progress in its bid to become more operationally sustainable, having contributed to a staggering volume of environmental savings.
Key statistics
