CALLS have been made to improve public transport connections between Bournemouth Airport and the town centre – with as few as two services a day often provided.
Frequent fliers from the airport at Hurn say the lack of routine bus links to and from Bournemouth town centre makes passenger transport “very difficult” and have warned that such difficulties could result in a “bad first impression” from tourists.
Bournemouth Airport is covered by Yellow Buses service 737, which serves Bournemouth Square, Railway Station, Winton, Moordown, Northbourne and Parley Cross from 6am to 1.30pm on Mondays to Fridays.
However, with between two or three connections a day, one Bournemouth resident said this could have detrimental impacts on people choosing the airport in future.
They said: “This makes the journey from the airport to the town very difficult as you are stranded at the airport with passengers from other flights waiting for that one bus in two hours and praying it will be doubler decker.”
The resident said this often forces passengers to take the more expensive option of a taxi.
He added: “I am local but if I were a tourist that would have been a very bad first impression of our beautiful town. I end up walking to Castlepoint through the fields and Throop Mill – a beautiful walk, but that is not an option for everyone.”
Transport bosses from Yellow Buses agree and are pushing for a return to its old hourly airport bus service however, at present, this is financially unviable.
They told the Echo that a permanent hourly bus service would require two or three all day vehicles with an annual cost of around £400k. They said there is not enough revenue generated by journeys from the small amount of flights to the airport to warrant this without financial support.
Yellow Buses provides journeys to the Aviation Business Park which, prior to the pandemic, were often full. However, following the pandemic these journeys are now only running at 60 per cent full.
Simon Newport, Yellow Buses commercial director, said: “We are committed to providing a service to the Aviation Business Park at the airport, we have recently started a new direct journey morning and evening from Christchurch.
“We believe that with all of the proposed development in this area, it will support an hourly bus service in the future and this would be the best way to provide a public transport solution to meet the flights coming and going from airport.
“In order to provide that sort of level of service today we will require a form of pump prime or kick start funding. We have recently written to Dorset Council to ask whether the development at West Parley could provide the funding for such a service. We are waiting to hear if this is a possibility.
“If this is not available, we will continue to work with our partners to find the appropriate funding to improve connections to the airport.”
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