Queenstown Airport in New Zealand is deploying a smart parking solution throughout its terminal car parks, helping to facilitate a seamless passenger journey from curbside to the gate.
The SmartGuide solution from parking specialist Smart Parking will use 450 vehicle detection sensors installed throughout the parking lots to detect the presence of vehicles. The sensors transmit live occupancy information to Smart Parking’s SmartCloud data intelligence platform, which feeds the quantity, type and location of available spaces to the airport website, as well as to displays placed at the entrance to the airport, alerting drivers to vacant bays.
Olivia Pierre, general manager commercial and customer experience, Queenstown Airport, said, “Over the last 18 months Queenstown Airport has invested more than NZ$4.2m (US$2.9m) in its ground transport and car parking offering to ensure an excellent customer experience for airport visitors and a wider choice of options when flying to and from Queenstown.
“Our main focus to date has been improving the parking infrastructure, including expanding our car parking by nearly 70%, bringing back the drop-off zone, and building a new roundabout and dedicated coach parks. The next step has been looking at technology solutions that will further enhance the customer experience.
“We’ve already rolled out Tap & Go in the terminal car parks for ease of payment and RFID for commercial operators, which provides a range of benefits. Sensor technology will now take us to the next level in providing real-time information. This will give airport visitors more control over their experience and take away the worry of whether there will be a car park for them.”
Rebecca Grainger, New Zealand national sales manager for Smart Parking, said, “Working with the great team from Queenstown Airport has been an absolute pleasure, we started this technology partnership with the implementation of sensors in the taxi rank to allow taxis to have visibility of the rank while queueing off-site to reduce congestion.”