“We plan carefully”: Flixbus dares to restart despite the third wave

“We plan carefully”
Flixbus dares to restart despite the third wave

The green buses from Flixbus are rolling again on the streets – initially with a reduced offer. In an interview with ntv.de, Managing Director Schwämmlein explains why his company is resuming operations despite the high number of infections, and what he thinks of the Chancellor’s crisis management.

ntv.de: Flixbus completely stopped the trips in November and canceled a planned restart for Christmas. The third corona wave is now rolling. Why is your company starting up again anyway?

André Schwämmlein: The most important thing is that we can offer safe and environmentally friendly travel even now. We have once again expanded our hygiene concept from last year, for example we are now using particle filters with an antiviral coating in many buses. We disinfect every vehicle before every journey, provide disinfectants for everyone, show passengers the expected occupancy rate when booking, check people in contactlessly, and of course a mask is required at all times. Safety is the most important thing and we made sure of that. Our teams have worked very hard together with the bus partners over the past few weeks to expand and implement our concept again. I am convinced that the long-distance bus is currently one of the safest ways to travel.

André Schwämmlein is the managing director of Flixbus.

The green buses roll in time for Easter. How does that fit in with the Chancellor’s appeal to stay home over the holidays?

For us it is currently not about tourist travel, but we want to offer people who currently have the need to be mobile a safe and sustainable option for it. That is why we are currently only driving on very few main axes of our network and with a fraction of our original range. We want to be there for our customers and bus partners and offer them a perspective.

How do you rate the federal government’s crisis management? In your opinion, what could go better?

A lot is currently being written and discussed about this. It is important to vaccinate and test so that everyone can return to a reasonably normal everyday life as quickly as possible. That doesn’t just apply to travel, but to all areas of life. For our industry, I can say that the constantly changing regulations make operations very difficult for us and our bus partners. We need more practicable and more uniform measures. The federal and state governments should have used the last few months to reduce bureaucracy, digitization and modernization.

How has your company got through the crisis so far?

The pandemic is the greatest challenge in our company’s history, of course. The entire mobility industry is currently facing major challenges. However, we have always planned very conservatively and with care and see ourselves well positioned. Our vision is that people around the world can travel sustainably by long-distance bus, and we will tackle that again as soon as the situation has normalized.

Do you depend on the support of the state?

Except for short-time work benefits – and that is an insurance benefit – we currently do not receive any state aid.

Flixbus is financed by well-known investors. Do they still support you in the crisis?

Absolutely. The cooperation with our investors was and is always characterized by mutual trust. It is very nice to see that our partners also believe in our vision during this time and fully support us. Incidentally, this also applies to the numerous medium-sized companies we work with, as well as our entire team.

You first want to head for 40 of the otherwise 500 German destinations. When will Flixbus offer all routes again?

I can’t answer that today. However, we are in constant contact with the authorities and our bus partners. Perhaps one can put it this way: when public life normalizes, so will our network.

Juliane Kipper spoke to André Schwämmlein

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