Aircoach’s 24/7 airport operation explored

FirstGroup’s Irish subsidiary, Aircoach, has been part of the group since 2003. In that time Aircoach brand recognition in Ireland has grown. Richard Sharman look’s at the Aircoach operation and how it delivers its express airport network of services

Aircoach was set up in 1998 by John O’Sullivan, who had previously worked as an engineer with Bus Éireann, to operate express airport services.Five years later he had built the Aircoach fleet up to 40 vehicles, many of which were Setra S415HDs, the preferred vehicle of choice at that time.

John had a strong business, but major funds were required to take operations to the next level. In November 2003, FirstGroup acquired 90% of Last Passive LTD t/a Aircoach. John retained 10% and stayed on as Managing Director. [wlm_nonmember][…]

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FirstGroup had felt encouraged to enter the Irish market due to the liberalisation of the bus market, with private operators now able to operate express services. Aircoach was purchased as the perfect platform to gain entry to the Irish market, as it was hoped that bus services would also soon be open to private operators.

Séamus Brennan, The Minister for Transport in 2003, was firmly behind the liberalisation of Dublin’s bus services, but a cabinet reshuffle in 2004 saw his successor, Martin Cullen, take over the position of Minister of Transport. The liberalisation of bus services was not carried out or planned for under Cullen’s term in that position. Fast forward to 2019 and that liberalisation is now in its sixth month, with some Dublin Bus services now being operated by Go-Ahead Ireland.

In September 2005, Aircoach became 100% owned by FirstGroup. O’Sullivan had left the company and sold his 10% share to concentrate on his own interests, which included an airport parking company, Quick Park. By December 2011, he had set up Dublin Coach, which has expanded over time and also operates airport services.

During 2018 a leadership change saw Allen Parker, the Managing Director for the last 12 years, depart Aircoach to pursue a new role. Donegal native Dervla McKay took over the role in May 2018. She had started her career with FirstGroup in 2005 as a graduate trainee and has spent most of her career at the Hampshire, Dorset and Berkshire division, where her last position was Head of Operations. Commenting on her new role at Aircoach, Dervla said: “I have worked for FirstGroup for 13 years, and had been aware of the Aircoach operation whilst working in the UK. The regulatory system here in Ireland is totally different to the UK, so my initial main goal has been to understand this system and the Aircoach operation. Unless you understand an operation, you do not want to be making changes to something you don’t understand as it may be the wrong decision.”

The move to Aircoach has been something of a change for Dervla: “In my previous role you would have people that would deal with public relations, banking and other central functions, but here I have those functions in the form of contractors or agencies which gives me the ability to affect what happens to my services quite quickly.
“I like the smaller family feel of this size of operation, but I am still part of the FirstGroup family, so I have the best of both worlds.”

The brand

The Aircoach blue livery, with a fleet name that incorporates the logo of an orange air traffic control radar, is a well-known and popular brand in Ireland. In the early years of FirstGroup ownership, a number of Scania Irizar Century coaches had been transferred into the business and operated in First’s willow leaf coach livery of dark blue and white, with a pink relief. Adoption of this livery was not to be though – the Aircoach identity was too strong to be replaced. In 2008/9, Aircoach took delivery of 19 Jonckheere JSV-bodied Volvo B12BTs. These tri-axle coaches were fitted with a rear wheelchair lift. The Jonckheeres were delivered with the existing Aircoach livery and brand, but with the addition of prominent First fleet names under the windscreen and above the front wheel arches. As a nod to the First coach livery, a large willow leaf vinyl was placed over the bodywork and side windows, above the tri-axle rear wheels. These coaches are currently being withdrawn from service and returned to the leaser, although five will remain for the time being.

Some of Aircoach’s Plaxton Panthers do carry small First vinyls below the first saloon window on each side, but Aircoach is very much a stand-alone brand in the group.

Express service network

Aircoach operates five express airport services, the most lengthy of which operates some 170 miles to the south of Dublin. The Cork service operates daily with an hourly frequency 24/7, 364 days a year. To maintain the service, an outstation is located at the Marina Commercial Park, 10 minutes away from the Aircoach departure point in Cork city centre at Patrick’s Quay. An allocation of 13 coaches and 37 drivers are required to keep this 24-hour service moving. Drivers can only operate one return journey per shift due to the amount of travel time in each direction. The Dublin airport depot also operates some of the departures on this route. Vehicles are cleaned at Cork outstation but fuelled at the Dublin airport depot.

Cork is Ireland’s second largest city, and as such the 704X is a very busy service.

It is not just an airport service, but also an express coach service from the Cork to Dublin city centre which travels on to the airport. The 704X offers a journey time of three hours from Cork to Dublin and operates non-stop. The train service has a quicker journey time to the city centre of Dublin but requires a change to get to the airport, making it a longer journey overall. Operating hours are also limited, with the last train leaving Cork for Dublin at 2025hrs.

Route 700 from Leopardstown and Donnybrook to Dublin city centre and the airport is the busiest of the five routes. Leopardstown is an important business district which is home to Ireland’s second largest horse racing stadium and has many high-end housing estates. The 700 offers a 15-minute frequency for commuters to get to and from Dublin city centre or to connect with flights at the airport. O’Connell Street in Dublin serves as a major stop for this service, with tourist attractions, shopping and business areas all close by. Dublin’s light railway system, Luas, operated by Transdev, also serves the corridor between Leopardstown and Dublin city centre but at peak periods the Luas is often operating to full standing capacity. Commuters using the 700 can reserve a seat through the Aircoach website, but as the service is frequent, capacity is not an issue.

Customers can also track their service via the Aircoach website and pay contactless when boarding due to Aircoach being the only operator in Ireland to offer contactless payment, as it has recently introduced Ticketer to its services.
The other two services operated are the 702 from Greystones and the 703 from Killiney and Dalkey. Both these services are multi-stop and operate to Dublin Airport.

Dervla says some of Aircoach’s success is down to the simplicity of its timetables: “The beauty of our timetables is that there are only 18 hours in the whole year where we don’t operate. Part of what makes Aircoach successful is that customers know that they can always get an Aircoach 24 hours a day to connect with flights. There are no trains running in from Cork overnight, but a customer knows they can catch an Aircoach at 0200hrs in order to make their early morning flight.”
Timetables on all services are the same seven days a week.

Brexit concerns and First Northern Ireland

Service 705X offers an hourly non-stop service to Belfast in Northern Ireland, with a journey time of 1 hour and 50 minutes. With the decision on the Brexit situation still in the balance at the time of writing and the implications of a hard border checkpoint still very much a possibility, Dervla voiced her concerns: “We have been liaising with the National Transport Authority at the Dublin end of the route, the DOI in Northern Ireland and the Department for Transport in
the UK, so have been trying our best to influence the decision, as I am sure many other operators have.”

On the possible effects of a hard border, Dervla added: “A hard border and actual checks of each service would, from a punctuality point of view, not work. You would need to put extra time into each service and we would possibly need at least two additional vehicles to maintain the frequency. If that happens then a service which is profitable may no longer be, leading to questions on whether it is still run. That would be the worse-case scenario but we hope this is not the case.”=

First Northern Ireland is the legal entity covering the operations from the Belfast side of service 705X. A team of 32 driving staff operate the service as far as Dublin airport. A Dublin-based driver then takes them over and operates the service to and from the Dublin city centre. This allows Belfast-based drivers to operate two trips per day.

A travel shop is located at the Great Northern Mall in Belfast city centre to sell tickets and advise customers. Coaches F33-9 are based at an outstation in the city centre that has vehicle cleaning and driver rest facilities.

Standardising the coach fleet

The delivery of the Jonckheeres in 2008/9 ousted a number of older coaches from the network. In 2014, Aircoach began an investment programme to standardise on Plaxton Panther 3-bodied Volvo B11Rs.

39 new coaches have being delivered in total since the start of this programme. A further eight are due to enter service at the end of January, seven for the Cork service and one for Dublin in Leinster Rugby dark blue livery. Non-Volvo-based coaches have been gradually phased out when new deliveries arrive; the four Caetano Levante bodied Scania K114 EB operated stayed in the fleet until early 2018 before transferring to the First Aberdeen Coach Hire unit. The final Setra S315 GT-HD 6400, 05-D-62327, will remain in service until the end of the month.

The interior of the Panther 3s is to Aircoach’s own specification, rather the standard FirstGroup interior. All coaches have air-conditioning, generous legroom, leather seats with three-point seatbelts and centre armrests, USB ports incorporating three-point plugs, WiFi, internal/external CCTV, dark tinted saloon windows and curtains in the same blue as the livery.

The eight 2019 Volvo B11R Plaxton Panther 3s were delivered just prior to the Christmas period and are awaiting registration to 191 plates. They are the first in the fleet to gain white LED Hanover destination displays, Shades 1670 rear saloon floor mounted toilet units with a silver metallic finish, a new design of upper vanity unit and a carbon fibre toilet seat. Brusa Extend 300 HRS seating is fitted, which features a higher headrest. Orion Leather from the company’s Ralli range is used in Kremit1 (Orange) and Mavi (Blue) for the seat covering. The air-conditioning system is the Thermoking X900 model.

Aircoach is the official coach supplier to Leinster Rugby team. The supporters club also benefits from discounted private hire. A Plaxton Panther has been vinyl wrapped to operate in the team’s dark blue colours with Leinster Rugby logos, but one of the 2019 deliveries will take over this role shortly. This new Plaxton Panther has been painted in the club’s darker blue colour.
All vehicles in the fleet feature in the FirstGroup national numbering system, but physically display a local Aircoach fleet number on the vehicles. There are three sequences: B for Dublin Airport parking shuttle buses, C for express coaches and F for First Northern Ireland coaches used on the Belfast service. This system has been in place since FirstGroup took over and is retained for administration purposes.

Dublin Airport parking shuttle services

In addition to the express coach network, Aircoach holds the contract to operate Dublin Airport Authority’s own public car park shuttle and staff services. This accounts for a bus fleet of 16 vehicles operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The airport staff shuttle service utilises three rigid dual-doored vehicles, a Wrightbus StreetLite, Volvo B7RLE Wrightbus Eclipse Urban and a Mercedes-Benz Citaro which has an interesting history. B20 (64000) was new to Transport for London (TfL) in 2002. It was purchased for use on the evaluation of a number of routes. This evaluation led to TfL purchasing the same type and specification vehicles for the RV1 route.

Aircoach is one of three locations in FirstGroup that still operate articulated Mercedes-Benz Citaro Gs. The other two locations are at First York for the Park & Ride service and at First Kernow on the Eden Project car park shuttle service. Eleven Mercedes-Benz Citaro Gs were delivered brand new to Aircoach during 2008/9. A former Arriva London example is also operated. Although they only seat 29 passengers, they have a large standing and luggage capacity which is ideal for this kind of airport work.

With these vehicles now being 10 years old, Dervla commented: “The tender is due for renewal this year, with an option for them to extend the current contract. Dublin Airport’s sustainability reports indicates that alternatively-fuelled vehicles would be required by us, or whoever wins the contract.”

“Ideally bendy buses would be required for capacity as Dublin Airport is due to carry 30 million people this year. It has jumped ahead of Manchester Airport in terms of passenger numbers. An additional runway is due for completion at the back end of 2021. Looking ahead, there are electric bendy buses on the market and we have been having initial discussions with Dublin Airport to assist them with the possible options, but it is their service and they will add to the tender what they see best. I have no doubt that we will put in a bid when the time comes.”

Recruiting drivers

Until recently, Aircoach had a policy of only taking on qualified PCV licenced driving staff. One of the first things that Dervla did was to reverse this policy. The need to maintain establishment is important in any operation, and Dervla is hoping that this reversal in policy will help: “Unemployment, according to figures from the Central Statistics Office is at 5.4%,” she said. “In the last 12 months, 49% of the jobs created in Ireland were created in Dublin. The employee market is tough out there. Turnover at the likes of Dublin Bus has historically been very low. When I started I looked at the manpower plan I knew the policy had to change as the summer was approaching if we ever wanted to expand operations.”

In terms of getting this programme moving, Aircoach has partnered with the Irish School of Motoring, but the hope is to move some of this training in-house in the future.

During the summer months, Aircoach is operating at peak capacity on both airport express services and car parking shuttles. During this period Aircoach is able to loan drivers from other FirstGroup subsidiaries to meet this demand if needed.
Aircoach currently employs 196 drivers. Of these, 37 are based in Cork and 32 in Belfast, with the remaining drivers based at the Dublin airport depot.

Further expansion of Aircoach?

In Ireland, the National Transport Authority (NTA) decides if an operator can run a service and to what frequency. It must also be beneficial to the customer. Dervla commented: “You need to apply for a licence from the NTA. For example, you could request an hourly service but the NTA may only offer you a two-hourly service or nothing at all. It is not as straight-forward as it is in the UK, but it does have its advantages and disadvantages.

“Those advantages come in the form of having the flexibility to amend timetables in a short period of time. The NTA allows operators to contact them with any changes and once the NTA has agreed the operator has four months to implement those changes. This means a potential change could be made within a few days of contacting the NTA.”
Talking about further expansion at Aircoach, Dervla said: “Any operator is always looking at new opportunities. If the right opportunity comes along or we find one, we will absolutely look at it.”
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