FlixBus looks to the east. The family of green coaches is expanding with other carriers

Until now, buses owned by Souter Holdings represent about two-thirds of FlixBus's fleet. The company does not own vehicles or employs drivers. It is based on carrier contracts of different sizes with rolling stock and employees. FlixBus gives the brand, technology, sets standards and routes, trains drivers, coordinates ticket sales, and more.

In 2019, the company wants to double the number of connections and cities to which it travels and to increase by half the number of buses. A year later, he will move to the east, informs "Puls Biznesu".

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Gazeta estimates that Flixbus' partners number 18 and include about 160 buses (this year, 60 vehicles were purchased – 23 new and 37 two-year old vehicles). The characteristic green buses now serve 54 routes and connect around 120 cities.

– More than 40 are cities with less than 80,000 hybrid inhabitants, says Michał Leman, managing director of FlixBus in Poland.

– By the end of next year, we want to have about 120 routes and combine more than 200 cities – says Kamila Zalewska, Business Development Director at FlixBusie in Poland.

To achieve this goal, the company needs more partners and vehicles. Zalewska explains that she is currently negotiating with more than 20 companies.

More than 4 million passengers a year

The company does not disclose how much it has earned last year. By the end of November, it had carried 4 million passengers and, in December, 500,000 additional passengers.

– During the past year, we paid 9.3 million excise zlotys, 7.6 million zlotys of VAT and 2.3 million zlotys of fuel, said Michał Leman.

3.5 million zlotys at the cost of road tolls and "social payments", including social contributions related to the employment of drivers – 42.6 million zlotys.

The eastern direction is the future

– We want to maintain our own regular relations between Poland and our neighbors in the East – Ukraine, Belarus and the Baltic countries. We will try to establish cooperation with carriers from these countries – says Kamila Zalewska.

In his view, this is a very forward-looking development direction, particularly with regard to the connection with Ukraine. Next year, we may go to Polish cities in Odessa or Lviv.

The company does not disclose financial data. It publishes only the number of passengers transported (they were already about 4 million in 2018 and FlixBus still waiting about 500 000) and the distance traveled by bus (33 million km).

– During the past year, we paid 9.3 million excise zlotys, 7.6 million zlotys of VAT and 2.3 million zlotys of fuel, said Michał Leman.

3.5 million zlotys at the cost of road tolls and "social payments", including social contributions related to the employment of drivers – 42.6 million zlotys.

– Based on our development plans, we estimate that social payments will well exceed PLN 60 million next year – says FlixBus CEO.