Our scheduled routes remained popular despite a severe reduction in in-bound tourism after 11 September, foot and mouth and the strength of sterling. Providing accurate travel information to customers continues to be a priority.

Passenger revenue increased with sales through direct channels growing by 29%. Sales via the GoByCoach.com website doubled reflecting the increased use of this facility by our customers. We continued to develop the Shuttle brand, which provides turn up and go high frequency commuter services.

Technology continued to play a major role in the development of the division. Ticket collection points were increased and, during December, GoByCoach.com was enhanced to offer customers the facility to print e-tickets directly from the website.

We continued to focus on improving the customer experience by evolving the existing product offering to provide incremental journeys to increase loyalty while attracting new customers. Areas for focus during the year included extending multi-channel distribution, increasing the use of technology, providing more reliable information, enhancing network frequency and tactical marketing activity.

We made a considerable investment in improving the service we offer. Customer research has reinforced the importance of information both before and at the point of travel. Our investment in the new customer contact centre and the GoByCoach.com website provides readily accessible information.

In July, we opened a new £1.4m customer contact centre which incorporates the latest telephony equipment, in Birmingham. It offers a one-stop shop for all our products and services. In addition we introduced a new customer relations system to enable swifter and more consistent resolution of customer enquiries. We introduced a Customer Recovery Service (“CRS”), which empowers and encourages front-line staff to be more proactive in dealing with customer matters. We also introduced new easily recognisable customer service staff at principal departure points.

Airport services

The impact of 11 September affected the performance of AirLinks in the last quarter of the year. It resulted in the reduction of scheduled airport services on some corridors. AirLinks secured or extended many of its important contracts, notably with Gatwick airport passenger services, and major customers, including British Airways, BAA, JMC, Virgin Atlantic and NCP.

European coaching

With the growth in internet booking, Eurolines upgraded its central reservation system to accommodate increased internet sales. This business has, however, been badly affected by the reduction in in-bound tourism both to the UK and continental Europe.
 
In July we opened a new £1.4m customer contact centre in Birmingham. The 30,000 sq ft facility enables customers to purchase tickets by phone or internet and provides valuable internet and direct sales support, handles enquiries and supports third party agents.
 

GoByCoach.com is one of the fastest growing names in the travel industry. Since its launch two years ago, it now registers over 4.2m page hits per month.