A German international low-cost bus operator officially launched its operations in Ukraine today, teaming up with Ukrainian company Euroclub. Although the company, FlixBus, has been operating some routes in Ukraine since 2017, it is undertaking a massive expansion of its service.
The buses will initially run from Kyiv and Lviv, the western city of 721,000 located 540 kilometers west of the capital, with stops in Zhytomyr and Rivne. The destinations include Budapest, Hungary; Krakow, Poland; Vienna, Austria; and a number of German cities, including Berlin and Munich.
From these destinations, Ukrainian passengers will be able to transfer to other FlixBus routes in Western and Central Europe. By the end of 2019, FlixBus intends to offer routes from such major Ukrainian cities as Dnipro, Kharkiv, and Odesa.
At a FlixBus press conference on June 11, Minister of Infrastructure of Ukraine Volodymyr Omelyan praised FlixBus as law-abiding. “This is exactly what is needed by the Ukrainian market of busing services, in which, by our estimates, about half of carriers work in the shadows, violate the laws and do not perform under the requirements in respect of the transport of passengers.”
The business model of FlixBus, a private venture start-up run by a group of German entrepreneurs since 2013, strives to partner with local companies as much as possible.
“FlixBus is taking care of all of the technological part and commercial part that is touching the customer,” said FlixBus director for Ukraine and Poland Michal Leman. “And for each of the lines we look for companies that are doing the harder part – the buses. And bus companies are responsible for buses: maintenance, equipping, getting drivers, preparing everything connected to having the bus on the road in proper shape.”
Partnering with local businesses and operating its own office in Ukraine will ensure that the nation collects taxes on fuel and employment as well as value-added taxes. Last year, FlixBus payed about €10 million in taxes in Poland. Leman expects that FlixBus will generate similar tax payments in Ukraine soon.
FlixBus touts safety, comfort and convenience at affordable prices for the long-haul routes.
The company is currently offering special discount tickets for €5-15.
Regular prices from Kyiv range from €21 to Krakow, €44 to Prague, or €72 to Hanover in Germany. FlixBus also allows passengers to take 20 kilograms luggage along with a 7-kilogram cabin bag.
For safety reasons, FlixBus demands that its local partners equip buses with two drivers on night routes, order anti-sleeping signals for drivers, and provide other safety equipment. In May and June, the FlixBus fleet was involved in three traffic accidents in Germany: a collision, an engine fire and a turnover on May 20 in Leipzig, Germany, that killed a passenger.
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