Rotorua Airport took out the inaugural title of Essential Business of the Year at the gala dinner and awards ceremony at this year’s Westpac Rotorua Business Awards on Saturday night.
The awards, delivered by Rotorua Business Chamber, celebrate innovation and creativity in the business sector. This year’s awards were reshaped to reflect the current environment, recognising and celebrating Rotorua's resilience through its nine categories.
Rotorua Airport CEO Mark Gibb says that while the airport is honoured to have been nominated for the award, the win is on behalf of all Rotorua’s essential workers who worked through the lockdown period, supplying our community with much-needed goods and services.
“It has been a year like no one could have predicted, and it started with many uncertain variables in front of us, but day by day we were able to tackle these head on.
“As New Zealand’s domestic flights all but shut down over April, our focus turned towards supporting essential air traffic and medical and emergency flights. Our business had to adapt at pace to our new world and we deployed our business continuity plan to ensure we could continue to operate, and our people, airport staff and customers, could continue to use the airport safely.”
“Over this time, we also took the opportunity to complete several significant projects including:
- The majority of our 2020 annual works programmed
- Completion of the business hub facility
- Installing bilingual signage across the terminal
- Gained certification of our new Safety Management System
- Addressed the proposed removal of Airways air traffic control staff and agreed on the continued services until My 2021, when a full review of the service to be completed
- Opening of Terrace Airside, the Airports fantastic cafe
- Completed the Terminal Redevelopment
- Completed the Airport Development Masterplan
- Released the first issue of the Haere Mai magazine
The Essential Business of the Year category recognises, thanks and celebrates those who supplied the community with “essential” goods and services during the lockdown, acknowledging the health and safety measures taken to protect staff, and how the operation benefited the Rotorua community.
