People travelling to and from East Midlands Airport are now doing so in greater comfort and style after nine brand new buses joined skylink Nottingham.

More than a million pounds has been invested by trentbarton in the buses for skylink Nottingham, a popular service both with airport passengers and many of the 10,000 workers at and near East Midlands Airport.

The new buses were on show at the weekend at Nottingham’s Old Market Square. Among the members of the public taking a look was Member of Parliament for Nottingham South Lilian Greenwood. The MP, who is the new chair of the House of Commons transport select committee, said: “The new buses are very smart and skylink’s customers will find the new features very useful as they travel to and from the airport.

“It’s great to see a local company such as trentbarton investing in cleaner buses and in a key service such as skylink which gets people to work and gets travellers to East Midlands Airport and home again.”

The new Enviro200 buses from Alexander Dennis (ADL) are light, fuel efficient and feature an improved suspension for a smoother ride on the skylink service linking Nottingham, Long Eaton, Loughborough and Coalville with the Airport.

Built in Scarborough, they have LED lighting, visual and audio next-stop announcements, plus free WiFi and USB power at every seat so customers can stay connected. Services run 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Jeff Counsell, trentbarton's managing director, said: “These fantastic new buses bring a truly first class experience to what is already a flagship service. They have been designed to make time spent on board both productive and pleasurable.

“These buses are also some of the greenest diesel vehicles money can buy. And they’re driven by the best in the business, with our drivers ranked number one in the country in the latest independent customer survey conducted by Transport Focus.”

skylink services are supported by East Midlands Airport, which has invested in public transport for over a decade. The airport, which is the region’s gateway to mainland Europe, as well as the US and Mexico, is one of the region’s largest employment sites with over 7,200 people working at 100 on-site businesses.

On average five million people fly to and from the airport each year. A potential 20,000 new jobs are set to be created at the largest pure freight airport in the UK and at the businesses in the East Midlands Enterprise Gateway [EMEG] area in the next decade.

Jonathan Fowler, East Midlands Airport’s customer services director, said: “We serve a large population who travel to us not only to fly but to work at the airport site. Ease of access is really important and it is critical that the airport is well-served by quality and frequent public transport. “We’re delighted that trentbarton has invested in a new fleet of skylink buses so that customers using them to travel to and from the airport can do so in greater comfort.”

The new buses are part of trentbarton’s £5m investment in 2017 on new vehicles and upgrades – its biggest ever investment in a single year.