The first stage of a new development area at Nelson Airport is complete with the opening of a back of house facility for award-winning national rental car company, GO Rentals.
The 230 square metre facility provides car grooming, maintenance and EV charging facilities for GO Rentals, and is the first phase of the airport’s future development plans on land at the southern end of the terminal precinct.
A new roadway off Trent Drive provides access to the facility, as well as creating simpler exit and entry points to the Value Carpark for airport customers.
Future development phases will see additional commercial and light industrial tenancies created in the area currently occupied by the airport’s Value Carpark. Work is underway to consider options for catering for future carparking demand in a different location.
GO Rentals Chief Operating Officer James Dalglish says GO Rentals is delighted to be moving its back of house operations into the airport precinct.
“It’s been our goal for some time to carry out more of our operations within the airport environment. Talks began back in 2019 but were disrupted by Covid so it’s fantastic to see this come to fruition allowing us to fully support our airport rental car fleet in one place.”
Nelson Airport Commercial Manager Simon Barr says it’s exciting to see the first phase of the development area complete.
“The facility will allow for more efficient servicing of GO’s rental car fleet, and contribute to their journey towards a climate-friendly fleet and operations. That complement’s Nelson Airport’s vision and mission too – we’re working toward becoming a world-class airport where zero-emissions planes operate – so this development is a great fit here.”
GO Rentals plans to increase its low-emissions vehicle fleet at Nelson Airport over time, with a third of its national fleet set to be clean-energy powered (a mix of EV and hybrid) by the middle of 2024.
The company is paving the way in the car rental industry in terms of sustainability and climate change action and is New Zealand’s first rental car business to partner with CarbonClick. When customers rent a vehicle with GO Rentals, they get the opportunity to offset their emissions with CarbonClick – reducing the impact of their drive - and can calculate their driving footprint by offsetting via the website.
The rental car company is also proud to be Toitū net Carbonzero recertified, accurately measuring the greenhouse gas footprint of their business.