One of the UK's busiest airports has a new transport link, with tickets starting from just £8.99. Depending on where you are coming from, getting to London Stansted can be a bit of a hassle. Now, that is all set to change, as a new coach service makes it easier and cheaper to travel to the UK's fourth busiest airport.
Coach company Flibco has launched a service to the Essex hub from Finsbury Park, stopping at Wood Green and Enfield along the way. The journey takes around one hour and 30 minutes from Finsbury Park, one hour and 15 minutes from Wood Green, and 45 minutes from Enfield, eliminating the need for passengers to switch between trains, Tubes, and buses as they previously had to.
While coach services like National Express run from locations including Victoria and Golders Green, the new link makes it easier for North Londoners specifically to travel to Stansted. The new route effectively streamlines travel, saving those who live in Finsbury Park, for example, from taking the Tube to Tottenham Hale for the Stansted Express. As for Wood Green, passengers bound for Stansted must currently take the Piccadilly Line to Finsbury Park, then change for the Victoria Line. From Tottenham Hale, again, a ticket must be bought for the Stansted Express.
If bought on the day, a single ticket for the Stansted Express can cost as much as £18 from Liverpool Street. The Flibco bus will be considerably cheaper. Adult single tickets start at £8.99, while children between four and 13 can travel from £5.06. Those travelling from Tottenham Hale can expect to pay between £13.70 and £15.20 for a single ticket on the Stansted Express, a journey that takes approximately 35 minutes.
And it is not the only Stansted service on offer. There is also another route, which ticks off Stratford, Liverpool Street Station, and Redbridge along the way. Redbridge is only 30 minutes from the airport.
Flexible Tickets and Other Airport News
If your flight is delayed, fear not: all Flibco tickets are valid for any journey on the same day. As long as you are on another service by 4am the next morning, you will not have wasted money on a new ticket.
Meanwhile, last month, Stansted started charging drivers £10 for a 15-minute regular drop-off, a £3 increase from the previous £7 charge. And if you stay any longer, you are looking at a £28 charge. All London airports are now charging for these short visits after City Airport announced its first-ever fee in January. Gatwick increased the fee to a record-high £10 just before Christmas. With this in mind, now is arguably as good a time as any for the new Stansted coach service to be up and running.
Elsewhere in airport news, an airline that operates flights from Gatwick Airport and Stansted Airport has cancelled all flights with immediate effect. Ascend Airways was a 'wet-lease' carrier, meaning it did not sell seats directly to passengers – instead, it operated behind the scenes. Also known as ACMI (Aircraft, Crew, Maintenance and Insurance), they were a short-term supplier of fully-crewed planes, meaning their customers were not travellers, but other airlines. Their previous clients included TUI, Oman Air and Air Sierra Leone. But now, Ascend is officially giving up its UK Air Operator's Certificate (AOC), a document that every airline needs in order to operate commercial flights in the UK. They will also be returning their fleet of eight aircraft.
