TWO bus companies have launched new services to connect Nottingham with East Midlands Airport.

The existing Skylink service operated by Nottingham City Transport (NCT) and the airport is due to stop running next month.

Bus operator Trent Barton will take over Skylink on March 25 and has spent £30,000 refurbishing buses.

However, the route will be changed completely.

It will go via the QMC, Beeston and Long Eaton, instead of following the old Skylink route along Wilford Lane, West Bridgford and through Clifton.

Premiere Travel has announced plans to start its own Red Flyer airport service following the old Skylink route from March 23.

Steve Greaves, managing director of Premiere Travel, said: "It seems that many people from the Clifton area work at the airport and will be massively inconvenienced by the withdrawal of the Skylink service through Clifton.

"At the minute you can get a bus from Clifton to the airport in less than half an hour. With the changes those people will have to catch a bus to the city and back out on the new bus, more than doubling their current journey time."

Premiere Travel say the Red Flyer will run from the Broadmarsh bus station 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Meanwhile, Trent Barton said its Skylink service will also run out of Broadmarsh around the clock, every 30 minutes between 6am and midnight and hourly after that.

A Trent Barton spokesman said: "The previous route required many thousands of pounds in subsidy per year which the city council and East Midlands Airport can now spend elsewhere. We also felt that the upcoming roadworks along the A453 would threaten its reliability."

The city council and the airport have spent over £2.37 million running Skylink for the past eight years, and it has been used by more than 500,000 people a year.

Nottingham City Transport has announced money saved on Skylink will be spent on running more buses to Clifton from March 25. They include running the South Notts 1 every 15 minutes, a new hourly night bus, and the Navy Line 2 and 3 will be more frequent.

The cost of using the new Skylink service will remain at £5 for a single or day return ticket, £8 for a month open return, and £12 for a family return ticket for two adults and up to three children.

A ten-trip ticket will also be available for £18.

The Red Flyer will offer adults a single from Nottingham to the airport for £2, a return for £3.50, and a ten-trip ticket for £15. There will be discounts for the under-22s.