
One of the biggest employers in the city region, Manchester Airport has hailed the Bee Network as a ‘real game changer’ for removing transport barriers to employment, with improved connectivity allowing the hub to recruit staff from a wider area.
Bus services in the south of the city region, including Stockport and South Manchester, joined the Bee Network on January 5th 2025 as the third and final phase of franchising was rolled out. Amongst the businesses getting behind the Bee Network and its potential to support the local economy and stimulate economic growth is Manchester Airport.
Jen Byrne-Smith, Customer Operations Director at Manchester Airport, said:
“As the UK’s largest airport outside of London, serving 30 million passengers a year, connectivity is at the heart of everything we do.
“That’s why we’re backing the Bee Network and the vital role it plays in bringing everyone in Greater Manchester closer together and improving our transport links – including making it easier to get to the airport for our passengers and our staff.
“We provide thousands of jobs right here in Greater Manchester – many employed directly by us, others through the third parties – and we want as many of our staff as possible to use the affordable, reliable public transport that the Bee Network offers.
“Through the jobs we provide and support, and through the business and trade we enable, we contribute billions of pounds to the local economy every year – and the Bee Network is helping to grow and spread that benefit.
“We’re also looking to grow the number of passengers we can serve to as many as 60 million by 2050 and the Bee Network is key to our growth and a driver in what we can deliver for the people of Greater Manchester and the North.”
Taking buses under local control has allowed Greater Manchester to begin shaping services so they better meet the needs of people and businesses across the city-region, with a focus on making them more punctual, accessible and affordable.
The franchised network in the north of Greater Manchester – rolled out over two phases in September 2023 and March 2024 – has already seen a marked improvement in the number of services running on time. Meanwhile, the £2 fare cap has also been kept in place and ticket prices have fallen by 15% on average.
This has produced tangible benefits for businesses – giving employees a reliable and cost-effective way to get to and from work, while also widening the potential labour pool for employers.
There have also been improvements to timetables – including later and earlier services that better join up with the last trams and trains of the day – and new initiatives connecting people with major employment centres.
The first of these initiatives is a new night bus pilot, connecting residents across Manchester, Leigh, Bolton and Salford to key night-time economy employment sites, such has hotels, bars and clubs, hospitals and distribution centres. The service has seen steady growth in passengers since its introduction in September 2024.
The night-time economy is a major part of Greater Manchester’s economy, with 358,000 people working in jobs or businesses that are significantly active at night, accounting for around 33% of the Greater Mancunian workforce.
October also saw the launch of the first new Bee Network service, connecting Wigan with Middlebrook retail park.
In total, improvements have also been made to around 75 Bee Network routes to provide earlier, later, more frequent and better connected services.
Chris Fletcher, Policy Director at Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce said:
“It is truly remarkable the impact that the Bee Network has had in the last 12 months and shows the benefits of having genuine local control over what is still the main form of public transport in the country.
“For businesses, having an effective, co-ordinated and cost-effective public transport network is critical to not only let their current employees get to work but it allows them to look to a wider catchment area for recruiting new staff.
“Likewise for people looking to access job-critical training or new job opportunities, more people now have more access to work and training options than ever before which will help Greater Manchester’s growth ambitions.
“The recent introduction of the night services has created a high degree of interest from a number of businesses, reliant on shift workers and having full control means that initiatives like this can be put in place to create a truly unique service that is right for Greater Manchester’s business and residents.”