Balfours Airport Direct takes its final ride

The bus service was a labour of love for Leonard Balfour, who alongside his wife Leonie and daughter Mia, ran the business, shuttling off excited travellers for their trips.

But after Leonard passed away in August, Leonie and Mia made the difficult decision to end the service.

“It was Leonard’s dream, he did it for the community,” Leonie said.

“He kept it going just for the community’s sake,” Mia said.

The bittersweet decision didn’t come lightly for the pair, with the Balfour family discussing the possibility long before they lost Leonard.

“As sad as it is, and we thought long and hard, even Leonard, before he passed, he knew it had to close,” Leonie said.

“When he passed away, we thought long and hard, and we thought, we can’t keep doing it. Financially it wasn’t viable.

“We’ve had (the airport direct service) for 11 years, and we’ve never once made money on it.”

While the airport direct service will be ending, their charter and self-drive services will continue, as well as their school services.

Leonie said the community support so far had been outstanding, especially over these past few months.

“Everyone’s sad that it’s going, but we’ve not had one person go off their head at us, they’ve all been so understanding,” she said.

“And when we told the drivers, they said ‘we knew this was coming’.”

“Even they questioned why it's still going,” Mia said.

While the final ride for the service might be approaching, Leonie and Mia want to thank the community for their support during this difficult time.

Balfours Airport Direct will be driving off into the sunset, with their final ride scheduled for October 30.