Fond farewell to the Flyer

DAWN IS just beginning to break on an early morning in June as a clutch of people gather outside the Cuala GAA centre on Dalkey’s Hyde Road. At about 3.50am, a familiar grey bus emblazoned with red letters pulls up. A lithe young blonde leaps down to take our cases – the Patton Flyer is ready for its first run of the day to the airport.

But what’s this? A blue Aircoach sidles up nearby in the large parking bay. All 10 passengers waiting, myself included, spurn the new arrival. Like myself, they are declaring with their feet their loyalty to the hourly bus service from Dalkey to Dublin Airport that Trevor Patton started four years ago.

And now the Flyer’s gone, despite an ardent “Save the Flyer” campaign waged over the past year by Patton with support from customers. The writing was on the wall when the Department of Transport, which had refused from the get-go – for reasons that were never really publicly clear – to give Patton a licence, gave one to Aircoach to run on exactly the same Dalkey-to-airport route early this summer. The Sunday morning in June when I found myself completely alone on a Flyer back to the southside was a clear portent.

It’s hard to explain what a pleasure the Patton Flyer was for southsiders. Finally there was a choice between driving across the city to a long-term car-park somewhere near Drogheda with still another juddering bus journey to the airport or paying for a taxi that cost more than the flight.

A choice between the Dart/bus service that involved hauling bags over a railway bridge north of Kilbarrack to get on a bus or at best, getting a lift to Sandyford or Ballsbridge to get the Aircoach. Or, of course, getting a loyal family member to make the over hour-long return journey to drop you off.

Then came Patton, with his staff of friendly east Europeans hefting bags into the hold, filling the morning darkness (the lights on the Flyer were always very low) with soft chatter. It was reliable and at €7, there was no cheaper way to get to the airport. Not to mention how easy it made getting overseas visitors back to the house.

It may seem sentimental but I’ll miss the Flyer: there’s nothing wrong with Aircoach, but it seems unfair that a businessman who created a service where there was none and proved there was a demand for it should be put out of business by government.

Let’s hope that Aircoach doesn’t change Patton’s route too much (having already made a couple of changes), or hike up fares. Patton and Aircoach may not have been David and Goliath – but it feels unpleasantly as if it was.