The Glasgow Flyer was a branded

airport bus An airport bus, or airport shuttle bus, alternatively simply airport shuttle or shuttle bus is a bus designed for transport of passengers to and from, or within airports. These vehicles will usually be equipped with larger luggage space, and i ...

service in

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

. It connected

Glasgow Airport Glasgow Airport, also known as Glasgow International Airport () and formerly Abbotsinch Airport, is an international airport located in Paisley, Renfrewshire, Scotland, west of Glasgow city centre. In 2019 it handled 8.84 million passe ...

to central

, operating as a shuttle bus via the M8 motorway. In Glasgow city centre it operated from the Buchanan bus station, also calling at Glasgow's two mainline

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

termini. It was formerly operated under contract to airport operator BAA until 31 December 2010, but the ongoing contract to operate the service was given to

First Glasgow First Glasgow is the largest bus company serving the Greater Glasgow area in Scotland. It is a subsidiary of FirstGroup. The company operates within the area covered by the Strathclyde Partnership for Transport, a public body responsible for h ...

from 1 January 2011 and operated as a scheduled Arriva service. The Glasgow Flyer service was discontinued on 31 July 2011.

History

The original bus service to Glasgow Airport was route 905, which was operated by Fairline Coaches under contract to Scottish Citylink, and ran a similar route.

Arriva Arriva Ltd. is a British multinational public transport company headquartered in Sunderland, England. The company was originally established on 24 October 1938 as T Cowie Ltd. Initially focused on the sale of motorcycles, it relaunched shortl ...

also ran extra buses on this route. All buses were in the Scottish Citylink yellow and blue colours, although the timetable stated buses in Fairline's livery may be used on the service at times. In February 2007, the 905 was re-launched with increased frequency and a new livery. The Glasgow Flyer was announced on 1 June 2007, with a start date of 9 July, and subsequently route 905 was withdrawn. Fairline Coaches instead started a competing independently run service, Glasgow Airport Link, using route number 905. In July 2008, Fairline Coaches sold its Glasgow City Centre - Glasgow Airport route 905 to First Glasgow; this service no longer runs. In late 2009, two of the vehicles used on the service were painted in Arriva's standard livery, to be used on other routes, mainly the X23 run in competition with

McGill's Bus Services McGill's Bus Services is a bus operator based in Greenock, Scotland. The company has grown to operate a network of routes covering much of the council areas of Inverclyde, East Renfrewshire, Renfrewshire, North Lanarkshire, Glasgow City (counci ...

. In January 2010 the service ceased to be operated under contract to BAA as the tender was awarded to First Glasgow to continue the BAA branded airport express service under the new name Glasgow Shuttle. However, Arriva continued to operate the Glasgow Flyer in competition with the official provider without BAA support, albeit with a revised livery. In 2011, Arriva announced the Glasgow Flyer would terminate service on 31 July 2011, citing a lack of access to the Public Transport Zone at Glasgow International Airport.

Vehicles used

Arriva invested £1.5 million on 11 new buses for the service. The vehicles are

Volvo B7RLE The Volvo B7RLE is a low-entry single-deck bus chassis manufactured by Volvo. It was superseded by the Volvo B8RLE in 2013, with production of the B7RLE continuing until 2018. Specifications The Volvo B7RLE is similar to its predecessor, the ...

/ Wright Eclipses, in a lime green, black and white livery. Each vehicle emits 13% less carbon emissions than the previous buses used on the service. They were expected in service in November 2007, but the first was launched on 4 December 2007 at Glasgow Airport. Between the new buses arriving and service starting, a fleet of

Plaxton Centro The Plaxton Centro was a low entry single-decker bus bodywork designed by Bluebird Vehicles and manufactured by Plaxton.Arriva Arriva Ltd. is a British multinational public transport company headquartered in Sunderland, England. The company was originally established on 24 October 1938 as T Cowie Ltd. Initially focused on the sale of motorcycles, it relaunched shortl ...

routes. An

Optare MetroRider The Optare MetroRider is a midibus that was manufactured by Optare between 1989 and 2000. History Optare based the original design on the MCW Metrorider after it bought the rights from Metro Cammell Weymann after the latter decided to cease ...

had been painted into the Glasgow Flyer livery for staff transport duties.

Service features

The service operated at 24-hour service, 7 days a week and all year, with prices lower than the equivalent taxi fare. The service ran every 10 minutes at daytime. Each vehicle had

WiFi Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for Wireless LAN, local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by ...

equipment fitted, offered to passengers free of charge, enabling them to access the internet as they traveled. The vehicles had leather seats, and each had a 3-tier luggage rack. Each bus also had a journey information system, which announced the bus stop the vehicle was due to arrive at shortly before it arrived. It also notified of train and subway stations, hotels and shopping streets.

Routes

500

The bus followed a different route in each direction in Glasgow City Centre, due to the

one-way traffic One-way traffic (or uni-directional traffic) is traffic that moves in a single direction. A one-way street is a street either facilitating only one-way traffic, or designed to direct vehicles to move in one direction. One-way streets typicall ...

system there. The service took approximately 20 minutes in either direction.Arriva bus timetable - Glasgow Flyer 500
Accessed 23 April 2008

Route departing city centre

* Buchanan bus station, stance 46 *North Hanover Street, for Queen Street station *St Vincent Street *Waterloo Street, for

Central station Central stations or central railway stations emerged in the second half of the nineteenth century as railway stations that had initially been built on the edge of city centres were enveloped by urban expansion and became an integral part of the ...

*Direct via M8 motorway *

, stance B5

Route departing airport

*Glasgow Airport, stance B5 *Direct via M8 Motorway *Bothwell Street, for Central station *West George Street *North Hanover Street, for Queen Street station *Buchanan bus station, stance 46

References

External links

Glasgow FlyerGlasgow Flyer leafletGlasgow Flyer timetable
{{Glasgow Bus routes in Scotland Transport in Glasgow Airport bus services in the United Kingdom Transport in Renfrewshire 2007 establishments in Scotland 2011 disestablishments in Scotland Stagecoach Group