The intercity coach travel provider is increasing its domestic routes and resuming international operations
FlixBus is expanding with new direct routes to and from Heathrow airport and has recently resumed international journeys to France, Belgium and the Netherlands. After a significant domestic expansion during the summer of 2021, the network within the UK is also growing with the addition of Cambridge as its latest destination.
Since re-launching in the UK in April 2021, FlixBus says it has tripled its network to meet increased demand for domestic travel. The operator offered almost 60 routes between nearly 30 UK cities, including Bristol, Birmingham, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Manchester, and Sheffield by the summer high season. With the start of the academic year, FlixBus has now added the university city of Cambridge to its UK network, providing up to three departures in both directions between there and London.
Andreas Schorling, Managing Director of FlixBus UK, said: “Since spring we’ve been continuously improving our new domestic offer and now we are covering numerous destinations in England, Wales and Scotland. Besides building our network within the UK, we also find it important to keep Britain and continental Europe well connected and provide affordable and sustainable mobility opportunities for international passengers. Thus, we are thrilled that in September, we could resume our cross-border operations as well.”
FlixBus has been offering cross-border journeys between the UK and continental Europe since 2016. After a pause caused by the pandemic, international routes are restarting between London and France, Belgium and the Netherlands, including direct journeys to Lille, Bruges, Liege, Antwerp, Brussels, Maastricht, Rotterdam, The Hague and Amsterdam, with connecting journeys bookable from destinations across the UK. The company has also introduced new direct routes between Heathrow and several UK cities, including Reading, Bristol, Cardiff, Bridgend, Swansea, Leicester, Nottingham, Sheffield, Manchester, Bradford and Leeds. The Heathrow-Bristol route is the most frequent, with up to six daily departures.
“We are aware that it is not always possible to reach far-away destinations by coach. By introducing direct airport routes, we want to encourage those travelling to distant locations to reduce their carbon footprint by adding climate friendly shared transportation to their mobility choices whenever it is possible during the journey,” added Andreas.
Earlier this summer the company announced its latest funding round of $650m, which it said will be used to expand its offering across multiple new and existing markets, with a significant share to fund the UK expansion, supporting its aim to build the country’s largest network by 2025.
