European bus operator Flixbus has seen brisk business in the Benelux during the first three months of the year. The company welcomed a record number of passengers on its international bus services. Business is up 40% in comparison with the first three months of last year. The Belgian and Flemish capital is increasingly a linchpin in the company’s international network.
810,000 passengers boarded a green Flixbus in Belgium during the past winter season. Brussels is now the company’s fourth most popular destination after Berlin, Paris and Prague. 800,000 passengers purchased a ticket to the Belgian and Flemish capital.
The cost-of-living crisis and more expensive plane tickets are clearly factors in Flixbus’s increased popularity. The company has sought to keep prices low with 21 euros still the average price for an international ticket, 10 euros for tickets for journeys within Belgium’s borders.
The company’s forecasting a record summer with business in Belgium and the Netherlands 50% up on the year. The company hopes to solidify its growth by continued investments. Flixbus recently received permission to use new bus stops at the new international bus station on the Franklin Rooseveltplaats in Antwerp and at Amsterdam’s Central Station. An agreement has been reached with Eindhoven Airport to strengthen road links between the 5th biggest city in the Netherlands and Belgium and France. New routes linking Germany and the UK, France, Sweden, the Netherlands and Italy will also cross through Belgium and the Netherlands soon.