Sinn Féin MLA Martina Anderson is urging the Transport Minister to take steps to ensure that concessionary fares can be accepted on the Airporter bus service between Derry and the two Belfast airports.

The Foyle MLA said:

“Airporter customers have been unable to benefit from concessionary fares since the introduction of new scanning technology by Translink which is not available to the airport shuttle service.

“Older people in particular are losing out as they are unable to utilise their free travel concession on the Airporter service.

“Translink operates a service from Belfast to both the International and City airports but there is no such provision for the citizens of Derry.

“This is a clear inequality and Translink should redress it by either operating the route themselves or enabling Airporter to access the automatic scanning hardware so that older people from Derry can avail of concessionary fares.

“I have asked the Infrastructure Minister to work with Translink to urgently address this regional inequality of service.”