Stelios to launch intercity minibus service

EasyJet founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou is set to launch his latest brainchild – easyBus – in the UK “in the following months.” According to the statement on a hastily constructed webpage at www.easybus.co.uk, the new company will provide “intercity, point to point, medium distance minibus services” that avoid using expensive city centre coach stations. It is claimed that using minibuses will allow vehicles to be filled more efficiently – so keeping prices down – and will also give the company more flexibility in where it can pick up and drop off customers. And the company claims it could offer a London to Birmingham fare as low as £1. Like other easyGroup companies, easyBus will vary its prices according to demand with customers paying less the earlier they book and with tickets sold predominantly – if not solely – over the web. But not all Stelios’ ideas have been as successful as easyJet. Earlier this year easyGroup launched easyCinema which has been losing money. Plans for 2004 include the launch of pizza delivery company easyPizza and budget hotel company easyDorm. The following year is expected to see the launch of easyCruise – a venture which many in the trade believe is doomed to failure. Do you think easyBus is a good idea? Would you use a no-frills minibus service to get you to where you wanted to go? Add a comment to the bottom of this article.