The media spotlight has long been on the environmental damage caused by flying and the carbon emissions given off by airlines, however, very little focus is placed on the environmental impact of travel to and from the airport.
In an attempt to reduce pollution, carbon emissions and alleviate traffic congestion, airports and travel providers are continually trying to encourage air travellers to use public transport when travelling to and from the airports. Obviously, taking public transport to the airport is the most environmentally friendly way of travelling to the airport, but isn’t always practical.
In recent years we have seen a significant rise in the environmentally unfriendly method of travelling to the airport – Kiss and Fly.
Kiss and fly is the enlisting of friends or family to take passengers to the airport – an innocent method of transportation, or is it?
The process of kiss and fly involves twice as many journeys as that of driving to the airport and parking your own car, as the car needs to travel to the airport twice, once to drop off passengers and then back to pick up passengers on their return.
The impact of kiss and fly is made apparent when you consider Gatwick airport alone, which currently handles 35.1 million passengers per year. In 2005, 27% of air travellers through Gatwick were driven to the airport in cars belonging to friends or family. In fact, in 2005, kiss and fly accounted for four times as many car trips to and from Gatwick than cars in the long-stay car parks!
If all travellers using kiss and fly switched to Gatwick airport parking, this would result in a 50% reduction of road trips leading to reduced congestion on roads surrounding the airport, and a 50% reduction in carbon emissions.
From a convenience point of view, kiss and fly is probably one of the most inconvenient methods of travel too. Due to security measures implemented at the airports, it is no longer possible to be dropped off right outside the airport terminal, as all cars must drive into the short-stay car parks and park before dropping off passengers.
So before you telephone your mate to drive you to the airport, stop, consider convenience and the environment, drive yourself and use a Gatwick airport parking option such as Gatwick meet and greet or long-stay parking.
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