Aircoach Route Changes and General Discussion.

Of all the First Group vehicles that they could have sent over to Dublin that were available, these were always going to be by far the best choice, so it's good that they have gone ahead with them rather than some other vehicles that were not really designed or an airport service, so we need to give First credit for that, this was a very good choice commercially.

However as I've stated on here before, Aircoach don't have a great general recent track record with commercial strategy over the past couple of yaears (But to fair I have seen a small amount of improvement in the last couple of months) and to pull off turning a coach service into a bus service and to make that commercially successful against the competition, it is going to take an extremely well executed strategy.

They need to get their marketing right, they need to undercut Dublin Express (for me if it's a Dublin Airport Flyer bus vs a Dublin Express coach for the same price, the coach wins) and to also be very commercially savvy. I think there is potential in a service that is somewhere between a city bus and an express coach service at a lower price than a coach as that essentially what Airlink did very well for years and that is something if Aircoach get their strategy right and really back such a service and give it the push it needs, could work.

However the branding of that vehicle posted above seems very confused. It's a bus with the name Aircoach (twice!) on the front. Then it has a sub-brand which is Dublin Airport Flyer, which as you say, almost feels like it has been chosen because it's easier to do that than have to make more substantial changes to the livery. And a new service/brand like this needs a good push with proper marketing, not scrimping on costs wherever possible.

Also how will ticketing work if we're going to have the 700 as a coach and 700X as a bus as rumoured?

• Will they have the 700X as the Airport Flyer and the 700 still as Aircoach? Will tickets be valid on both services? If so, then basically that means the Flyer service is going to be pegged to the price of the coach, which means they're not going to be able to exploit the niche between a city bus and full coach like Airlink used to, unless they just undercut Dublin Express totally.
  
• And if tickets are not valid, then you've literally made the service less attractive in the city centre, because you're saying that people that can take a 700 or 700x every 15 minutes now, will now be restricted to a bus every 30 minutes because of some artificial seperation which is going to push them straight into the arms of a competitor.

It's going to be interesting to see how this turns out.

I don't think in my opinion charging the same price as Dublin Express for a service that is going to be sometimes a bus and sometimes a coach is as attractive as the guaranteed coach and the much more frequent service that Dublin Express offers.

That's before we talk about the fact that the whole idea of the service being under the Aircoach brand still where it is going to be a bus is very odd. You would think that the best solution if we're going down the route of buses is making the primary brand for the 700/700X as Dublin Airport Flyer and phasing the Aircoach name out after a transitional period. Or maybe they will do what some companies in the UK have done recently which is refer to a double decker bus a double decker coach even though it's not?

Aircoach squandered their position as the leading operator on the Dublin Airport to Dublin City centre corridor so they need to make themselves more attractive than the competition now to win those customers back. I don't think an inconsistent service provision at a price that is the same as it's much more consistent rival is the most ideal approach.

They're Ex First Glasgow diesels that are 6 years old, which ironically have recently been replaced with electrics that have a livery which looks very similar to the former Dublin Bus Airlink livery!

I've seen other photos of the ex Glasgow vehicles in the new Aircoach bright pink livery though (but been asked not to share) and they really do stand out. If they brand it up well and maintain it, it really is going to be striking and turn heads, so lets give Aircoach credit for that at least.

There's only 7 of them, so I can't see them turning up on other routes unless there is some kind of disruption or a shortage of vehicles.