Dublin Airport bus service

luckat

So normally I take the car out to Quickpark and leave it there while I fly. Handy, but not exactly green. And at €6 a day, dear enough - my five-day journey to Paris last week would have cost me €30.

This time I decided to be a bit greener. It was an early flight, so I couldn't get the 16A directly to the airport; I figured I'd get a taxi to the AirCoach, then on the way home I'd get the 16A.

Taxi to the Green was €9, then the AirCoach was another €7. Fine, that's €16, and with my annual bus ticket, the 16A home would go in on my normal annual bus travel.

Except that when I got off the plane and exited the airport at 8pm, the 16A had left at 7.50pm, and there wouldn't be another until 8.40pm. Looking at the schedule, there appear to be very, very few 16As running, and they seem to have little or no connection with the flights to and from the airport they serve.

So I got another AirCoach to O'Connell Street, bringing my transport up to €23. For another €7 I could have had the convenience of driving my own comfortable car.

It's not easy being green, Kermit.

vibrant

Fair play to you for trying though! There are other Dublin Bus services from the airport - the 747, and er.. the ones that go to Swords, whose numbers I forget... so there are cheaper alternatives out there to the AirCoach. I'm not saying this to sound preachy or advertise any other services though... but in saying that I do find the AirCoach is SO handy, what with having the luggage stored away safely and all.

And this question is slightly on topic too (yet 100% rhetorical): how come most UK Airports sell cheaper airport parking online (sometimes it can be as low as £1.50 a day) yet Dublin Airport insists on charging €6 a day yet don't provide adequate bus services to many regions? Hmm...

luckat

Excellent point, Vibrant.

I'm actually thinking of writing to Dublin Bus to ask them what they're playing at, though I probably wouldn't think it polite to phrase it quite like that.

Davidth88

and they seem to have little or no connection with the flights to and from the airport they serve.

Thats an odd observation , which flights should they co-ordinate with , there are constant flights arn't there ?

Saying that , the timetable is pretty sparse in the evenings isn't it

I think the airport is very badly served by public transport , but hopefully the metro will cure that , assuming you live in D2 of course

luckat

I suppose I'm talking about the Ryanair and Aer Lingus flights that would be used more by locals than the big international routes.

John R

If you had looked at the conditions of your annual bus ticket you would have seen that it is valid for the Airlink 747/748 service so you could have gotten to/from the city on that for free.

As you exited the Airport at 8.00 I don't see how you knew that a bus had left at 7.50, you probably just missed the 8.00 16A and the next one would have been at 8.30.

Exactly which flights do you think the bus departures should meet up with? There are arrivals at least every 5mns at that time and most are short-haul, besides the scheduled arrival times leaves a big window as to when passengers will actually get out of the building, particularly if it gets put at one of the A8x/A9x gates with a 10min walk through bloody portakabins.

As for complaining to DB, it won't do any good. They have tried several times to increase the frequency and times of bus services to the Airport over the past number of years including trying to run a 24hr normal bus service but were turned down due to objections from other operators (Aircoach).