a day run direct to the terminal for all major UK airports. Operations National Express offers many routes to destinations across the country. In addition, shuttle and airport services are also operated, although there is no obvious difference to the passenger between a standard, shuttle or airport service with regard to branding. Many National Express coach routes pass through several town centres, which increases journey times for longer journeys considerably. A smaller number of shuttle services operate at least once an hour over faster direct routes. National Express operates coach services direct to the terminal for all major UK airports, 24 hours a day, with 1,100 airport services every day, including East Midlands, Gatwick, Heathrow, Luton and Stansted. The Airport brand was created in 2003 when the National Express image brand was updated, merging the former Airlink, Flightlink, Jetlink and Speedlink brands. In the 2007 re-brand, the Airport branding was dropped, although the 'Airport' coding is still used on tickets. Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic Following the introduction of guidance from the UK Government on avoiding non-essential travel, services were replaced from 24 March 2020 with a limited network of services for passengers with essential travel needs. However, due to declining passenger numbers as a result of the restrictions, all services were suspended from 6 April 2020. Services restarted nearly three months later on 1 July, on about a quarter of route mileage and with reduced frequencies. The company gradually increased services on some routes but in October 2020 began to reduce the number of journeys again, following the implementation of new COVID-19 restrictions. During the second national "lockdown" in November 2020, the company continued to run services albeit to a severely reduced timetable. After the ending of the month-long lockdown the company mainly restored the pre-lockdown timetable but with some alterations due to parts of the country being placed in different "tiers" of restrictions. As a result of the discovery of a new, more transmissible variant and the implementation of tighter restrictions prohibiting travel in many areas of the country, services were significantly reduced by the end of December 2020. On the implementation of a third national lockdown in January 2021, services were again suspended from 11 January. Eleven weeks later, limited services again resumed on 29 March. Franchised operators The majority of National Express services are contracted on long-term agreements to local coach companies, known as partner operators.