Southside Airport bus service could serve half a million passenger journeys

Dublin Express has kicked off a new bus service connecting several of the capital’s biggest suburbs with the airport that could potentially carry more than 500,000 passenger journeys a year.

The bus operator, run by National Express Ireland, on Thursday launched a route from Terenure to Dublin Airport running through Rathgar, Rathmines and the city centre, close to the Liberties and St Stephen’s Green.

National Express plans to spend €5 million developing the service that it says will create 26 jobs including drivers as well as in maintenance, sales and administration.

General manager, Rory Fitzgerald, said the company saw a “huge gap” for a service connecting the city’s south side with the airport.

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“Our data shows us that over 520,000 people make about 180,000 trips to the airport in the immediate areas around this route between Terenure and the city centre,” he explained.

He dubbed the new 783 route a “huge win” for the environment and passengers who can avoid traffic jams and parking charges.

Dublin Express calculates that one of its coaches could remove “more than one mile” of traffic congestion by taking 50 cars off the road.

National Express Ireland already operates services tying Dublin and Belfast with the airport.

Last year it agreed a joint ticket deal with Iarnród Éireann that allowed passengers to add its services linking Heuston and Connolly stations with the airport to their rail journeys.

The company is a local subsidiary of the British National Express group.