Adelaide Airport plans all-electric bus fleet

A fully electric bus fleet could be introduced to Adelaide Airport by as early as next year – the first Australian airport to do so.

That coincides with Adelaide Airport’s appointment of Australia’s leading airport transit business, SkyBus, owned by Kinetic, as the new operator of its airside and landside shuttle buses from April for the next five years following a competitive tender process.

SkyBus connects more than five million passengers with airports annually across Australia and New Zealand with its iconic red vehicles, and provides substantial carpark and airside busing services to Melbourne and Auckland airports.

The next generation vehicles will be supplied by Adelaide’s Precision Buses, which brought to market Australia’s first operational electric urban bus.

E-buses are expected to replace the existing fleet by early 2021.

“SkyBus has a long and successful track record partnering with major airports across Australasia to deliver market leading transit options and we are excited about Adelaide Airport’s appetite for innovation and what will be an exciting future for the airport,” Kinetic co-chief executive Adam Begg says.

Airport finance and corporate executive general manager Brenton Cox says the airport processes more than eight million passengers annually and strives for innovative solutions and continuous improvements in all areas, including bus transport.

Kinetic has meanwhile welcomed New Zealand bus operator Go Bus to the group, adding the acquisition is a milestone announcement for the company.

Go Bus has 29 depots and more than 1700 vehicles operating from Auckland to Invercargill, the transaction expected to be completed mid-2020.

It also helped with trials for the Auckland Transport AT Local EV rideshare service on the North Shore.

The company, which includes tour and charter services division Johnston’s Coachlines, joins Kinetic’s growing mass transit platform that includes Queensland bus operators Surfside Buslines and Sunbus, Sydney’s bus and coach charter company Telford’s, and airport transit business Skybus (Australia and New Zealand).

Kinetic’s collective brands will move more than 50 million people throughout Australasia every year and will be the ‘largest mass transit bus operator in the region with 2800 buses, 49 depots and more than 4000 people’, the company states, yet given recent global COVID-19 coronavirus developments it is hopeful such numbers will still be realised.

Kinetic is majority owned by Optrust, one of Canada’s largest defined benefit pension plans.

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