London Buses Airbus routes describes the dedicated routes run byLondon Buses and its successors toHeathrow Airport. The routes have the prefix letter A. Currently only one route exists,route A10, with four others having been withdrawn.[1]
In 1981, two Airbus routes, routes A1 and A2, were introduced.[2] Route A1 ran toVictoria and route A2 toKings Cross viaMarble Arch.[1] An attempt was made to launch a route A3, running from central London toStansted Airport, but this was quickly abandoned, as was a second attempt in 1992.[3] The routes were operated by 16 newMCW Metrobuses, later increasing to 24.[4]
The Airbus services were taken over byLondon United when London Buses wassplit into subsidiaries in 1991.[5] London United were reportedly unhappy with their profitability, and considered transferring the routes to theLondon Coaches operation which was then up for sale, but this did not take place.[5] In 1995, the 36 Metrobuses were partially replaced by 12 newVolvo Olympians fitted with air conditioning.[6][7]
Also in 1995, a new route called Airbus Direct was launched. This linked Heathrow to nearby hotels, operating on request to a hotel on any reasonable route using 16 earlyDennis Darts displaced from other routes.[6][7]
Following the introduction of theHeathrow Express train service in 1998, the routes' popularity fell, and route A1 was withdrawn.[8] The surviving routes A2 and Airbus Direct were sold toNational Express in February 2000.[1][9] The A2 was rebranded as a National Express Airport service in 2002, but withdrawn in late 2004 as passenger numbers fell once more.[1][3] Airbus Direct continued, and was rebranded Hotelink and laterDot2Dot, but was sold to Corot plc in early 2009 and finally withdrawn later in the year.[10]
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