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Melbourne Airport’s SkyBus is adding two more services this year and has pledged to switch to an all-electric bus fleet by 2031.
The “Eastern Express” service, launching on 31 August, will connect the airport with Box Hill Central via Watsonia and Doncaster, while the “Sunshine Express” starting 9 November will connect the airport directly with Brimbank for the first time.
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They join the Melbourne City Express to Southern Cross Station and the Peninsula Express to St Kilda and Frankston, with SkyBus having recently signed a new contract with the Victorian government to continue operating at Melbourne Airport until 2034.
SkyBus is also looking to phase in electric buses over the next five to six years, with the Sunshine Express to launch using an electric fleet and the Eastern Express to transition to electric from next year. The rollout will include Australia’s first electric double-deckers, estimated to arrive in 2027.
“These new Eastern Express and Sunshine Express services will connect more Melbourne communities directly to the airport, providing a convenient and affordable transport option,” said the CEO of SkyBus parent company Kinetic, Michael Sewards.
“Since its humble beginnings as a single-bus airport shuttle service nearly 50 years ago, SkyBus has grown to carry almost 3 million people to and from the airport every year, and these new services will help us serve even more passengers.”
Melbourne Airport’s chief of property, retail and ground transport, Jai McDermott, said SkyBus is “an essential part” of the airport’s transport mix.
“These new services will provide much needed improvements to connectivity for our staff and passengers. We thank the Victorian Government for providing SkyBus with the certainty and SkyBus for committing to these services,” he said.
“The airport is growing, and with the recent approval of our third runway we are on track to welcome more than 76 million passengers by 2042, so we need the right transport infrastructure in place to support that growth and SkyBus will play a pivotal role in this.”
Melbourne Airport has called for the Victorian government to add more public bus services, saying that staff and passengers from the north and west of Melbourne are being “let down” by a lack of local buses.
“Melbourne Airport is the largest employment precinct in Victoria outside of the Melbourne CBD with an indirect workforce of more than 20,000 which is served by just four public bus routes, one of which does not run on weekends,” McDermott said.
“There are currently very few bus connections, particularly in the evenings, which can make working at the airport challenging and recruiting difficult for our many partners and operators across the airport community.
“That’s why we have long been advocating for more bus services and why we are so grateful for this announcement.”
The expansion of the SkyBus contract, including new provision of airside services, comes as the airport’s long-delayed rail link looks to be finally seeing some movement, with a memorandum of understanding signed between the airport and the state and federal governments in March.
The airport last year dropped its demand for an underground link and agreed to the state government’s preferred above-ground option, and work has already begun on the interchange at Sunshine Station. The Commonwealth earlier this year confirmed an extra $2 billion in federal funding.
