National Express West Midlands and Birmingham Airport celebrate bus milestone

National Express West Midlands is celebrating after welcoming its 100,000th customer onboard its 97A bus service, just nine months after extending the route to Birmingham Airport.

The region’s largest bus operator worked with Birmingham Airport to launch the extended 97A route past Chelmsley Wood in July 2024. 

The service provides frequent journeys up to every 30 minutes throughout the day and night, seven days a week, connecting passengers between Birmingham city centre, Birmingham Airport and the National Exhibition Centre.

Since it was launched last summer, the extended 97A bus service has seen on average nearly 3,000 passenger journeys each week and has now hit 100,000 customer journeys.

To celebrate the milestone, a surprise gift was presented to 97A customer Lea Tariq by Alex Johnson, Transport Analyst at Birmingham Airport.

Mat Hidson, Area Network Manager for National Express West Midlands, said: 

“It’s a pleasure to be working alongside Birmingham Airport to improve sustainable passenger transport connections and we’re excited to be celebrating this brilliant milestone with 100,000 customer journeys since the launch last year.

“With Tap and Cap, it’s easier than ever to hop onboard our buses - there’s no need to worry about finding the right change as passengers can make as many bus journeys as they like and we'll cap their fare automatically, so they never pay more than they need to.

“And as well as saving on expensive petrol and parking costs, one double decker bus can take up to 75 cars off the road, so by choosing to travel by bus passengers are  also doing their bit to reduce traffic and drive down harmful emissions on our region’s roads.”

As part of its Airport Surface Access Strategy and wider Sustainability Strategy, Birmingham Airport is working with public transport operators including National Express West Midlands to reduce its Scope 3 carbon emissions from passenger transport to and from the airport, while also reducing pressure on the surrounding road network from private car use. 

Nikki Bains, Head of Planning, Transport and Strategy at Birmingham Airport said:

“We are delighted to be marking this milestone with National Express West Midlands. Since the launch of the service last year, the extended 97A route has resulted in greater public transport connectivity around the clock, enabling our customers, colleagues and partners to travel sustainably to and from Birmingham Airport. Emphasising sustainable modes of public transport to the airport remains a priority for us as an organisation and forms part of our commitments set out within our Surface Access Strategy.” 

Tap and Cap means that bus users can tap their contactless card or device every time they get on a National Express West Midlands bus and their payment will be capped to give the best value fare, no matter how many journeys they make.

To find out more about National Express West Midlands visit www.nxbus.co.uk.