Blue is for CBUS and Red is for Airport. That’s all that convention-goers and Downtown visitors will need to remember when COTA launches their new airport shuttle service in May. The design schematic was presented yesterday for the first time at a COTA Board of Trustees meeting, and the design closely resembles the look of the popular CBUS Circulator.

Dubbed “AirConnect”, the new route will circulate travelers between Downtown hotels, the Convention Center and Port Columbus every thirty minutes when the service launches in May. Columbus Underground first showcased the details and route map for the new service several weeks ago.

“There’s a correlation between the AirConnect design and the CBUS so that visitors and residents can easily recognize these COTA services,” stated COTA Public and Media Relations Manager Lisa Myers. “We unveiled the AirConnect name and design at our Board of Trustees meeting on Wednesday, but the design may change slightly before the launch in May. The design we unveiled shows a CNG bus, however, due to clearance issues, the buses will not be powered by Compressed Natural Gas.”

Additional new service changes presented at the board meeting include several suburban route upgrades:

An extension of Route 83 to Easton, which runs east-west across the north side from Upper Arlington

A new service line called the 2L, running every 60 minutes between Polaris and Westerville

A new service line called 21, running north-south connecting Dublin, Hilliard and Southwest Columbus

A new service line called 25, running north-south connecting Easton, Gahanna, Reynoldsburg and Southeast Columbus.

For more information, visit www.cota.com/servicechanges.

Edit: Updated to add clarification and information from COTA at 1:37pm on 1/18/16.