[PR] Aircoach Fare And Service Changes

devnull

Just so nobody misses their bus, I thought I better post this having just read it when I was booking a coach to/from Cork!

From looking here it seems their last increases was in November 2008. Like has been said on here when Dublin Bus increased their fares, it's going to effect everyone to some degree and I'm sure they won't be the last to put their fares up.

Service Changes

Following changing patterns of demand for our coach services to and from Dublin Airport, Aircoach would like to announce changes to its Greystones – Dublin Airport, Killiney / Dalkey – Dublin Airport and Ballinteer – Dublin Airport services, with effect from Sunday 4th March 2012.

From Sunday 4th March 2012, these services will operate to a new Spring-time timetable, and will provide one departure an hour, 24 hours a day.

Greystones – Dublin Airport
Services will depart from Greystones on the hour, every hour, 24 hours a day (01:00, 02:00, 03:00 etc.)

The departures from Greystones at 03:30, 04:30, 05:30, 06:30 and 07:30 will no longer operate.

Dublin Airport – Greystones
Services will depart from Dublin Airport at 30 minutes past the hour, every hour, 24 hours a day (00:30, 01:30, 02:30 etc.)

The departure from Dublin Airport at 06:00 will no longer operate.

Killiney / Dalkey – Dublin Airport
Services will depart from Killiney at 55 minutes past the hour, every hour, 24 hours a day (rather than 50 minutes past the hour at present) (00:55, 01:55, 02:55 etc.)

Services will depart from Dalkey on the hour, every hour, 24 hours a day (01:00, 02:00, 03:00 etc.)

The departures from Killiney at 03:20, 04:20, 05:20, 06:20 and 07:20 will no longer operate.

The departures from Dalkey at 03:30, 04:30, 05:30, 06:30 and 07:30 will no longer operate.

Dublin Airport – Killiney / Dalkey
Services will depart from Dublin Airport on the hour, every hour, 24 hours a day (01:00, 02:00, 03:00).

The departures from Dublin Airport at 02:30, 03:30, 04:30, 05:30, 06:30 will no longer operate.

Ballinteer – Dublin Airport
Services will depart from Ballinteer at 30 minutes past the hour, every hour, 24 hours a day (00:30, 01:30, 02:30 etc.).

The departures from Ballinteer at 04:00, 05:00, 06:00 and 07:00 will no longer operate.

Dublin Airport – Ballinteer
Services will depart from Dublin Airport at 15 minutes past the hour, every hour, 24 hours a day (00:15, 02:15, 03:15 etc.)

The departure from Dublin Airport at 04:45 will no longer operate.

There are no changes to our schedules on our Dublin Airport – Dublin City Centre (Leopardstown & Ballsbridge) or our Dublin Airport / Dublin City Centre – Cork services.

Revised fares will also be in operation from Monday 5th March 2012, and details of these can be found in this news item: http://www.aircoach.ie/news.article.php?ID=338

We would like to thank you for your understanding regarding the change to our services, and we look forward to welcoming you onboard in the near future.

Fare Increases

We would like to advise customers that, due significant cost increases, particularly in connection with fuel prices, we have no option but to amend our current fare structure across sections of our routes. We have not amended our fares for over 2 years and have been resisting this change. This change will be introduced on Monday 5th March 2012.

The revised Adult Single and Return fares will be as follows:

Dublin City Centre / Ballsbridge & Leopardstown Services
Dublin Airport to/from Drumcondra: €6.00 Single / €10.00 Return
Dublin Airport to/from O’Connell St. & Trinity College: €7.00 Single / €12.00 Return
Dublin Airport to/from stops to Donnybrook (BB&LT): €8.00 Single / €14.00 Return
Dublin Airport to/from stops beyond Donnybrook: €9.00 Single / €15.00 Return

Greystones Service
Dublin Airport to/from The O2 €6.00 Single / €10.00 Return
Dublin Airport to/from stops – Sean Moore Rd to Mt Merrion: €9.00 Single / €15.00 Return
Dublin Airport to/from stops – Galloping Grn to Loughlinstown: €10.00 Single / €17.00 Return
Dublin Airport to/from stops – Shankill to Bray: €12.00 Single / €18.00 Return
Dublin Airport to/from stops – Greystones: €14.00 Single / €21.00 Return

Killiney / Dalkey Service
Dublin Airport to/from The O2 €6.00 Single / €10.00 Return
Dublin Airport to/from stops – Sean Moore Rd to Killiney: €9.00 Single / €15.00 Return

Ballinteer Service
Dublin Airport to/from all stops: €9.00 Single / €15.00 Return

All unused existing Return tickets issued at the previous fares remain valid for travel.

However, we are pleased to advise that, by visiting our website and booking tickets in advance (up to 5pm the day before travelling), customers can make savings on many of their fares and guarantee their seat on the departure of their choice. Please use our booking facility at www.aircoach.ie.

Aircoach is still committed to providing good value for money and delivering a quality service. We would like to thank you for your support and understanding, and we look forward to welcoming you onboard in the near future.

schemingbohemia

Is that not actually a reduction in fare? I was sure I'd paid €8 single for journeys to the Airport from Dalkey. They should have dumped the early morning on the half hour service ages ago, I heard a driver telling a passenger recently that he'd often have no-one on the bus on those journeys - surprised they didn't remove some the hourly services between 1-4am.

LXFlyer

There are a number of changes:

Services
They have removed the morning peak extras on the Ballinteer, Dalkey and Greystones routes.

Fares
Fares between the Airport and Drumcondra, and the Airport and the Point Depot have reduced (presumably the latter is to compete with Dublin Bus Airlink) to €6.

Fares on the outer ends of the Leopardstown, Dalkey and Greystones routes have all gone up in price by €1.

schemingbohemia wrote: »

Is that not actually a reduction in fare? I was sure I'd paid €8 single for journeys to the Airport from Dalkey.

The fare to/from Dalkey is going up from €8 to €9.

schemingbohemia

Doh! mis-read the bit under Dalkey/Killiney. Ah well, will still use the service for early morning flights.

Run_to_da_hills

I could only see fare increases having an negative effect on their business particularly with DB competing with them on city routes. Also it seems rediculous having full sized coaches at night on the Dalkey run when there is hardly anyone on them. Maybe they should consider Stelios approach. and use smaller 18 seater Mercedes Sprinters.

patrickbrophy18

Coming from a person who wants more public transport in Dalkey, I am hardly surprised that they have decided to remove the half hourly morning peak. The unsociable hours in which these operated was in itself, indicative of the demand levels. Having said that, half hourly between 0700 and 0900 and then 1700 and 1900 might have been a better bet given that more people are awake and prepared to travel abroad. Nevertheless, the service still remains 24/7 (excluding Christmas Day), so I wont complain.:D

As for the smaller coaches idea proposed by "Run_to_da_hills". This wouldn't be a good idea as the spacious nature of the Setra's make them more comfortable and hence attractive. Also, smaller coaches would would reduce the level of comfort and negate their famous slogan "Travel In Luxury". After all, this is their unique selling point.;)

devnull

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

I could only see fare increases having an negative effect on their business particularly with DB competing with them on city routes. Also it seems rediculous having full sized coaches at night on the Dalkey run when there is hardly anyone on them. Maybe they should consider Stelios approach. and use smaller 18 seater Mercedes Sprinters.

Mercedes Sprinters are nothing more than a converted van at the end of the day, there is no real reason to run such vehicles and besides using such vehicles would be very poor value for money for the fare payer why should I pay the same amount for a dinky crappy basic sprinter that someone else does for a proper luxury touring coach. I've actually been on one of those EasyBus services and lets just say they have less comfort than a city bus, let alone a coach. They have their place, but an airport coach service or any scheduled bus service isn't one of them.

The fares have gone up just twice in around seven years, the first time in 2008 happened to be the same time as the fuel rebate was removed by the previous government, which increased the costs for every operator at the same time and it's been widely debated not just in Ireland but in most of Europe that the price of fuel is a record high at the moment, coupled with the fact airport numbers are down, I would say that the company like many other operators has no choice but to cover their costs. It's hardly like they are making huge profits and it is greed related. They are a private company which has to pay all of it's own insurance, fuel and other costs and is purely dependent on money it gets through the farebox.

patrickbrophy18 wrote: »

Coming from a person who wants more public transport in Dalkey, I am hardly surprised that they have decided to remove the half hourly morning peak. The unsociable hours in which these operated was in itself, indicative of the demand levels. Having said that, half hourly between 0700 and 0900 and then 1700 and 1900 might have been a better bet given that more people are awake and prepared to travel abroad. Nevertheless, the service still remains 24/7 (excluding Christmas Day), so I wont complain.:D

The peak time extras were done I would imagine in the morning because historically going back a few years, Dublin Airport was busier between the hours hours of 5am-8am when the first wave of flights went out. That is no longer the case to the same degree and coupled with less people traveling, it's no longer viable to actually run such services. I have been on some of the removed services myself in the last 18 months, and on every occasion there was no more than 4-5 people on them at the very most.

Run_to_da_hills

devnull wrote: »

Mercedes Sprinters are nothing more than a converted van at the end of the day.

There's no mention of that on the Easybus website.

The buses that Patton was using weren't that bad and would have been more economical that a 56 seater coach.

devnull

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

There's no mention of that on the Easybus website.

Maybe not, but that is the case, the sprinter was originally a van which was converted to a mini bus with just a different interior layout. They are not proper vehicles for carrying transit passengers and should not be regarded as them.

The buses that Patton was using weren't that bad and would have been more economical that a 56 seater coach.

Not sure why that is particularly relevant for a few reasons
1) Patton only ran the service every two hours during the day only and not in the evening or early morning due to the increase of the price in fuel.in 2010. He claimed that this was the only way the service was financially viable.
2) Patton had a flat fare of eight euro. He charged this to everyone regardless of if they were adult, child, Free Travel Pass, single or return.
3) There was strong debate on here that Patton was paying his staff minimum wage rates at the very most.

Fare Category 2010 Patton 2010 Aircoach 2012 AC Offline 2012 AC Online
Adult Single €8.00 €8.00 €9.00 €8.00
Adult Return €16.00 €14.00 €15.00 €14.00
Child Single €8.00 €2.50 €3.00 €2.50
Child Return €16.00 €5.00 €6.00 €5.00
Staff Single €8.00 €3.50 €4.00 NA
Staff Return €16.00 €7.00 €7.50 NA
Free Pass €8.00 €0.00 €0.00 €0.00

If his coaches really were more economical for him to run, why was he implementing such structure even before Aircoach came on the scene? Surely his prices should have been much lower if they had a lower cost base? it just tears the argument to shreds.

Even with the price changes coming in during March, the only people who will be paying more than they were two years ago with Patton are adults buying single tickets. Aircoach prices for children, staff, and those buying returns and holding a free travel pass are still cheaper than Patton's 2010 prices.

In any case as has been said on here dozens of times, do you really think that Patton would not have hiked his prices up in the current climate. Course he would have.

devnull

The final fares now seems to be online and they seem to have quite a number of things which were not mentioned in the initial release that mean you can avoid the price changes and save money.

It seems that on the Dalkey, Ballinteer and Greystones, whilst the cash fares are indeed increasing, the online fares are staying the same. The Return fare on the Leopardstown route also is frozen for those who book online. So if you want to avoid the price rises, book online it seems is the way to do it.

It also seems there is a new staff return fare which is less than half two single fares which I believe was not there before.

Full details at:
http://www.aircoach.ie/aircoach.fares.php

DalkeyResident

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Run_to_da_hills

DalkeyResident wrote: »

Trevor Patton is busy working on the NEW Patton Flyer service that is going to be soon rising from the ashes as soon as the Aircoach services concludes, which cannot be far away now. He has seen the latest Aircoach accounts, and they make pretty negative reading.

LOL.

DalkeyResident

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devnull

I'm not a shill actually, if I was a shill why would I post about the GoBus.ie competing service that would take business away from Aircoach if I was?

In any case, your post has been reported. Would've thought you'd have learnt from your last ban.

AlekSmart

DalkeyResident wrote: »

Maybe Devnull, the obvious aircoach shill on here, will then have to find some other company to shill for.

Probably far easier for Trevor to get a peek at Aircoach's accounts than the other way round......:o

dub_commuter

Has anyone seen the accounts?

What do they show?

Victor

DalkeyResident wrote: »

Maybe Devnull, the obvious aircoach shill on here, will then have to find some other company to shill for.

devnull wrote: »

In any case, your post has been reported. Would've thought you'd have learnt from your last ban.

Relax folks.

devnull

It is Ironic that the same two posters who were earlier accusing Aircoach of greed in the past are now saying that they are suffering financially. I hate to break it to you that it is impossible for a company to be greedy when they are not making money. I know this may come as a shock to you but I thought I would point the obvious out.

All companies have been hit financially by the recession in Europe and any company who makes the majority of it's business transporting people to and from the airport or airports or airlines themselves are going to be hit more than most other industries.

We have seen Urbus, Flybus, Dublin Bus and other operators also make cuts and/or increase fares because of less people traveling and the increased cost of fuel. We've seen European airlines go bust and once thriving business reduced to those which are struggling to even break even.

I doubt anyone is thriving in this trading environment, so I don't know why it would be a shock if companies financial reports reflected the trading conditions that are clear for everyone to see. It is far better for companies such as the ones mentioned above to address the concerns with cuts and fare increases rather than carrying on blindly and denying there is a problem.

Now if only some of our politicians in the last few years could take note of the last sentence!

dub_commuter

You can be both greedy and losing money, if the money is spent in the wrong place.

For example, take Anglo Irish Bank, they were losing money, but they still employed greedy staff on big fat bonuses despite the fact they were bailed out by the taxpayer. So it could be the case here, but it may not be either.

Whilst airport traffic has fell, it hasn't fell by the amount most people are claiming. These are probbably the kind of people who fly Ryanair as well who are exploiting young people as can be seen on http://ryanairdontcarecrew.blogspot.com/ rather than flying with a proper airline.

Nice shlll by the way.

LXFlyer

We are talking about 4 or 5 extra departures on each route. There is still a coach every hour - that is hardly that huge a reduction in service.

devnull

dub_commuter wrote: »

You can be both greedy and losing money, if the money is spent in the wrong place.

For example, take Anglo Irish Bank, they were losing money, but they still employed greedy staff on big fat bonuses despite the fact they were bailed out by the taxpayer. So it could be the case here, but it may not be either.

Whilst airport traffic has fell, it hasn't fell by the amount most people are claiming. These are probbably the kind of people who fly Ryanair as well who are exploiting young people as can be seen on http://ryanairdontcarecrew.blogspot.com/ rather than flying with a proper airline.

Nice shlll by the way.

What have Anglo Irish bank and Ryanair got to do this? Really your attempts to troll are getting more and more increasingly desperate.

Also please remind me with Trevor Patton who you keep banging on about is a great person, what was he doing when he charged 8 euro per single trip, no reduction for the elderly, children, return trip or those who were staff? Not offering a return fare, and employing staff on minimum wage. Now that is what I call GREED.

dowlingm

I don't think not having a return fare is greedy. Travel twice the distance pay twice the fare.

DalkeyResident

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devnull

DalkeyResident wrote: »

Trevor Patton was an entrepreneurial gentleman. He had an idea and someone stole it from him because the Irish Government favours multi-nationals over indigenous Irish companies which is a scandal, his service was bigger, better and Irish.

Trevor charged a return fare as his costs were pushed up because of the fact that people were conspiring against him. He had helpers with him who helped out on the bus, to offer a good value service, the personal touch no foreign company has as they are desperate for cash.

If Trevor was so greedy, surely he could have made more money by not having any helpers. It is a scandal that the company was closed down even though it was operating as a private hire business, which Dublin Bus and others do without a route license so one was not needed.

No, he had an idea, and decided that he was going to put his idea into action whether it was legal or not. Whilst I agree it was a good idea to think up such route, the way he went about doing so was questionable to say the least and had he stuck to the law he may have had a more favorable outcome.

Allegedly the people who were employed by Patton were being paid less pay than what Aircoach were offering, the service was using smaller buses that only ran every two hours, higher fares and was staffed, according to many members in the Patton flyer thread, almost entirety by non Irish people. I'm not so sure how that would make his costs hire unless there was some inefficiencies somewhere.

We know it was not a private hire business, and we've gone over all this ground before. A private hire business does not have fares, or a schedule which is published on the website and operating a scheduled service every day of the week at the same times is vastly different from someone hiring a bus from Dublin Bus for a one off event or an ongoing event that doesn't cover the exact same territory as a licensed bus service.

Lastly nobody was conspiring against him. He broke the rules and got punished. That is generally what happens in developed countries.

Cookie_Monster

DalkeyResident wrote: »

Trevor Patton was an entrepreneurial gentleman. He had an idea and someone stole it from him because the Irish Government favours multi-nationals over indigenous Irish companies which is a scandal, his service was bigger, better and Irish.

how was it bigger, smaller buses and less departures
How was it better: more expensive, less nice coaches
I never met an Irish person on any of the buses, the all seemed to be Eastern European. So while it may have been Irish owned it wasn't all Irish. Just like Aircoach being multinationally owned (not just UK) doesn't mean they don't employ Irish people.

Lets be very clear about this, he operated outside the law and never bthered to get a licence until it was already far to late and had been granted to a company that patiently played by the rules.