Flixmobility

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FlixMobility GmbH
logo
Basic information
Web presence www.flixbus.de
Reference year 2017
owner Investor group (including General Atlantic , Georg von Holtzbrinck publishing group , Silver Lake , SEK Ventures, Daimler Mobility )
legal form GmbH
Seat Munich
Managing directors Jochen Engert, Daniel Krauss, André Schwämmlein, Arnd Schwierholz
Employee about 250
sales EUR 352 million (2016)dep1
subsidiary FlixBus BV, FlixBus CEE GmbH, FlixBus CEE South doo, FlixBus CZ, FlixBus DACH GmbH, FlixBus Danmark ApS, FlixBus France SARL, FlixBus Hungary Kft., FlixBus Inc., FlixBus Italia Srl, FlixBus North GmbH CEE, FlixBus Polska Sp. Zoo , FlixBus RO SRL, FlixBus RS doo, FlixBus Sverige AB, Rodbillet ApS, FlixMobility Experience GmbH, FlixMobility Tech GmbH, FlixTrain GmbH
Lines
railroad Stuttgart – Berlin, Berlin – Aachen, Berlin – Leipzig, Aachen – Hamburg
statistics
Passengers 100 million since it was founded
Stops Approx. 2,800
Catchment area Europe and USAdep1
Flixbus
Flixtrain (April 2018)
Flixtrain in Hamburg-Altona (April 2018)
Flixbus logo until May 4th, 2016
Flixbus double decker bus (2014)
Old logo (until January 2015)
FlixBus timetable in Konin (Poland)
E-bus ( BYD C9 ) and charging station for the Mannheim-Frankfurt connection has now been retired

The Flixmobility GmbH , based in Munich, is a 2012 established transport companies and to be on the road a platform company. The company operates under the Flixbus brand in long-distance bus services . In addition to bus travel, the subsidiary Flixtrain has also offered rail travel since March 2018 . The spellings of the names are FlixMobility , FlixBus and FlixTrain .

history

Foundation and market entry

The company was founded in 2012 under the name Gobus ( spelling : GoBus ) and renamed Flixbus at the beginning of 2013 . Flixbus began in February 2013 as part of the liberalization of long-distance bus traffic in Germany and an amendment to the Passenger Transport Act with four daily routes through southern Germany.

Merger, acquisitions and consolidation of the market

On January 7, 2015, Flixbus and MeinFernbus announced that they would merge, merge their route networks and offer additional routes abroad. MeinFernbus carried 7.2 million passengers in 2014, Flixbus 3.5 million. In 2015, 20 million passengers traveled across Europe with MeinFernbus Flixbus. With more than 20 million passengers, long-distance buses carried more passengers in 2015 than domestic German air traffic. MeinFernbus Flixbus was the market leader on the German long-distance bus market with a market share of 71% (measured in terms of kilometers traveled).

In March 2016, the Flixbus company changed its name to Flixmobility . On May 4, 2016, the brand name "MeinFernbus FlixBus", which was mainly used in Germany, was discontinued.

In June 2016, the company acquired Megabus' business in continental Europe.

On November 1, 2016, Flixbus took over the competing company Postbus . In 2016, Flixbus had a market share of over 80 percent, and a year later it rose to over 90%.

Other acquired companies and parts of companies:

Electric drive and ecology

The world's first purely electrically operated long-distance bus line was launched on April 10, 2018 on the 150-kilometer Paris – Amiens route. For this purpose, the operator of the connection BE Green , a subsidiary of the Dominique bus group , procured two ICe 12 electric buses from the Chinese manufacturer Yutong . At around 400,000 euros each, the vehicles are around 30% more expensive than conventional buses. The bus is 12 meters long, holds 49 passengers, reaches speeds of up to 100 km / h and has no on-board toilet. The ten built-in lithium-ion battery packs have a total capacity of around 250 kWh and enable a range of 200 kilometers; their charging time is just under four hours. A charging station was set up in Amiens and an existing station is also used in Paris.

In October 2018, a fully electric BYD C9 long-distance bus was put into operation on the Mannheim – Frankfurt route (90 km). Operations ceased in December 2019 because the lithium iron phosphate battery frequently caused failures. Flixmobility is planning tests with other alternative drive technologies by 2021 at the latest. Each vehicle was charged once or twice a day and overnight at the ZOB Mannheim and in Frankfurt at a temporary charging station with two plugs with 40 kW each, for a total of 80 kW. A concept of replacing the batteries at the end stops was not implemented. The bus is twelve meters long and reaches 90 km / h.

Since April 2019 the Flixtrain trains have also been operated with electricity certificates from Greenpeace Energy.

According to atmosfair , passengers can monetarily compensate for carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions through a payment by financing CO 2 -avoiding projects. This is used by 10% of the passengers.

Shareholders and Investors

Flixmobility headquarters in Munich

In September 2013, the automobile manufacturer Daimler announced via Daimler Mobility Services, the Center for Founding and Innovation of the Technical University of Munich UnternehmerTUM and the Georg von Holtzbrinck publishing group via Holtzbrinck Ventures that they were joining the company as strategic investors. The majority stake in Flixbus remained with the three company founders Daniel Krauss, André Schwämmlein and Jochen Engert.

In January 2015, it was announced that the US private equity firm General Atlantic is supporting the merger of MeinFernbus and Flixbus with an investment. In December 2016, the US private equity firm Silver Lake also invested in the company, which is now known as Flixmobility, to finance further growth.

In July 2019, another financing round of around 500 million euros was announced. Accordingly, Holtzbrinck Ventures took another stake in Flixmobility. Permira and TCV joined as new investors .

activities

Flixbus

description

As a result of a reform of the Federal German Passenger Transport Act and the associated abolition of the protection against competition for long-distance passenger transport services by the railways , companies have been able to offer regular services with long-distance buses since January 1, 2013 . Flixbus forms an umbrella brand for lines from other bus companies as well as its own long-distance bus lines.

Flixbus connects large and medium-sized cities via daily regular services with a nationwide route network . Flixmobility advertises the brand with comfortable buses including on-board toilets, the sale of snacks and drinks and free WiFi .

Flixbus tickets are primarily sold via the company's own online platform and travel agencies, and in individual cities also in their own Flixbus stores, preferably at bus stations. In 2013, Flixbus was the first provider on the German market to launch its own mobile app . This enables booking via mobile devices and provides information about delays, the location of the stops and the next departure times.

The journey is handled by local medium-sized bus companies. Some routes are one of the code-sharing taken into his own booking system comparable method from other providers. Flixmobility operates around 1,000 buses under the Flixbus brand; these are owned by around 250 medium-sized partner companies, 150 of them in Germany. Flixmobility develops the network itself, organizes the operation and handles the bookings.

Development of regular services

The line operation began on February 13, 2013 with several daily direct connections between Munich, Nuremberg and Erlangen. In the course of 2013, the line network was expanded to include all of Germany and neighboring countries. Since summer 2014 several lines u. a. to Vienna and Basel. In 2016, Flixbus offers around 60 of its own long-distance bus routes and daily direct connections to 110 German cities and around 30 destinations in other European countries.

By the 2019 financial year, connections had risen to 2,500 destinations in 30 countries and 62 million customers were transported in long-distance buses, train connections and ridesharing services.

In cooperation with the Austrian company Westbahn from Salzburg to Vienna , nine destinations in Upper and Lower Austria have been accessible by train since 2013. With the ferry company TT-Line , Flixbus has also been offering cross-mode connections to Malmö and Trelleborg since April 2014 . Flixbus has been connecting Zurich , Groningen , Enschede and Amsterdam with German destinations every day since October 2014 . Since October 2014, the Flixbus lines have also been shown in the Google Maps route planner .

In May 2015, Flixbus announced its entry into the French market . Following the liberalization of the market as part of the Loi Macron law reform  - named after the then Economics Minister Emmanuel Macron  - Flixmobility has been connecting the 30 largest cities in France since 2016. In July 2015, the newly founded national company Flixbus Italia announced plans for a national network in Italy at the additional location in Milan known.

In November 2015, Flixbus announced the establishment of its third national company in the Netherlands. The domestic lines are faster than the national rail transport Nederlandse Spoorwegen without changing . This made Flixbus the first long-distance bus operator in the Netherlands with a national network. At the end of 2015, a subsidiary in Eastern Europe was added to a. to connect Croatia, Slovakia and Hungary with the partner Blaguss . Lines to Great Britain (London) and Spain (Barcelona) started at the end of March 2016. Flixmobility has been cooperating with the Polish long-distance bus operator PolskiBus since May 2016. Polskibus will operate as the operator of Flixbus lines from mid-2018 and Flixmobility will be responsible for marketing and sales. The Polskibus company remains independent, its vehicles are designed in the Flixbus brand.

At the end of May 2018, Flixbus expanded to the USA, with the trips being operated by local bus companies. The advertising, sales and booking system come from Flixmobility. Competitors are Greyhound ( FirstGroup ) and Megabus (British Stagecoach Group ).

At the beginning of March 2019 negotiations began with the French competitor Transdev , which, as the third largest operator in France, was considering selling the Isilines / Eurolines long-distance bus activities to Flixbus. At the beginning of May 2019, an agreement was reached with the Transdev Group to take over Eurolines and the Isilines brand, which is particularly popular in France. Eurolines is active in 25 countries - in addition to France, among others in the Netherlands, Belgium, the Czech Republic and Spain. Last year the bus company transported around 2.5 million people.

Flixtrain

In August 2017, the specially founded subsidiary Flixtrain received a license as a rail transport company . At the same time, the Leo Express company took over the route rights of the insolvent Locomore and resumed the Berlin – Stuttgart connection. Since March 23, 2018, Flixtrain has also been offering the Hamburg-Cologne connection, which was previously operated under the name Hamburg-Cologne-Express (HKX). The operator of this connection is the company Eisenbahnouristikexpress . The former Locomore and HKX lines have been marketed under the Flixtrain brand since April 2018. As with long-distance bus transport, Flixmobility takes on the marketing and price management under the Flixtrain brand. Flixtrain also offers tickets for a night train with sleeping , couchette and seating cars from Lörrach via Freiburg and Hanover to Hamburg. In 2018 the company sold around 750,000 tickets and the average occupancy was around 70%.

In February 2019, Flixmobility announced the expansion of the train service between Hamburg and Cologne from two to three pairs of trains per day. The connection between Berlin and Cologne was established on May 23, 2019. Flixmobility is currently the only competitor of Deutsche Bahn in long-distance transport, apart from foreign railway companies .

In Austria Flixtrain tickets sold for between Vienna and Salzburg circulating Western Railway . In June 2019, as part of the market liberalization from 2021 , the company applied to the French railway supervisory authority Arafer for train path rights for five lines on the Paris-North - Brussels-North , Paris-Bercy - Lyon-Perrache , Paris- Bercy - Nice (night train), Paris routes -Bercy - Toulouse-Matabiau , and Paris-Austerlitz - Bordeaux-Saint-Jean .

Public perception and criticism

Panorama shot with Flixbussen at the ZOB - Berlin

In July 2014, Flixbus scored the best of nine long-distance bus providers at Stiftung Warentest with a grade of 1.8.

In 2016, Flixbus in Germany was accused of operating an aggressive pricing policy on the back of its subcontractors and their employees. The low pay would put pressure on the subcontractors, who would be forced out of the market as a result or could no longer guarantee the maintenance of the vehicles. This endangers the safety of the passengers. According to studies by the State Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs in North Rhine-Westphalia, there are “some 'black sheep'” in the area of ​​subcontractors. In the majority of the companies, however, the defect rate is low and driving and rest times are mostly observed.

In Switzerland, a market with less liberal regulations for bus transport, Flixbus’s entry into the market in 2016 caused resentment: Flixbus was violating Swiss regulations that prohibit the transport of passengers on routes within Switzerland; Flixbus replies that you shouldn't hold back passengers against their will if they want to get off before the border. At the end of 2016, the Swiss transport staff union SEV also accused Flixbus of social and wage dumping: for example, Switzerland is being crossed with foreign chauffeurs whose wages are only half as high as in Switzerland.

In 2017, Flixbus held a market share of over 93% in the German long-distance bus market and thus increasingly holds a monopoly position in its field of activity , whereby the sales of previous acquisitions of competitors were below the reporting threshold and were therefore not subject to the control of the antitrust authorities . According to consumer advocates, this could lead to disadvantages for consumers such as rising prices or a reduced supply. Competition expert and member of the Monopolies Commission Angelika Westerwelle, on the other hand, takes the view that competition through competition with other means of transport will persist and that no negative effects of market dominance are to be expected due to the low entry barriers .

In 2019, Flixbus lost a lawsuit initiated by the VKI before the Vienna Commercial Court due to 30 inadmissible clauses in its conditions of carriage. The judgment is not final.

See also

Web links

Commons : FlixBus  - collection of images
Commons : Flixtrain  - collection of images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ownership structure at Statista , as of June 2018, accessed on January 6, 2020
  2. ↑ Annual and consolidated financial statements for the financial year from 01/01/2016 to 12/31/2016 of Flixmobility GmbH. In: Bundesanzeiger , May 8, 2018
  3. ↑ Consolidated annual financial statements 2016 (at www.unternehmensregister.de, accessed on November 26, 2018)
  4. ↑ flixtrain.de , accessed on January 6, 2020
  5. ↑ About your long-distance bus company. Flixmobility, accessed October 12, 2019 .
  6. ↑ a b checkmybus.de , accessed on January 6, 2020
  7. ↑ Dieter Fockenbrock: Comment: Flixbus shows how German start-ups can drive to international success. In: Handelsblatt. July 21, 2019 : “The start-up has long since become a platform for several modes of transport. ... The business principle of a mobility platform without its own [...] assets expanded at a breakneck pace. ... whether the company [...] will be able to manage its global expansion. [...] Flixmobility always has to cooperate with analog partners on site. The key question [...] is whether the company will be able to manage its global expansion. Because [...] Flixmobility always has to cooperate with analog partners on site. ";
  8. ↑ Christian Schlesiger, Matthias Hohensee, Karin Finkenzeller: Flixmobility: How Flixbus conquered the world. In: Wirtschaftswoche. August 9, 2018 .;
  9. ↑ Public announcement to Munich District Court HRB 197620 In: Justizportal des Bundes und der Länder . January 21, 2012, accessed February 13, 2020.
  10. ↑ Public announcement to Munich District Court HRB 197620 In: Justizportal des Bundes und der Länder . February 4, 2013, accessed February 13, 2020.
  11. ↑ Fusion of long-distance buses. MeinFernbus and Flixbus. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. January 7, 2015, accessed April 13, 2015 .
  12. ↑ FlixBus and MeinFernbus: major merger on the German long-distance bus market. In: Spiegel Online. January 7, 2015, accessed March 20, 2015 .
  13. ↑ Bus industry presents a success story. January 13, 2016, accessed February 20, 2016 .
  14. ↑ Long-distance buses transport more passengers than domestic German air traffic. In: airliners.de. January 19, 2016, accessed February 20, 2016 .
  15. ↑ The long-distance bus market starts the new year stable. In: iges.com. February 9, 2016, accessed February 20, 2016 .
  16. ↑ FlixBus is my long-distance bus - our new brand for Europe! In: facebook.com. FlixBus, May 4, 2016, accessed May 4, 2016 .
  17. ↑ a b Kim Richters: Flixbus buys business from Megabus. In: Gründerszene. June 29, 2016, accessed June 30, 2016 .
  18. ↑ a b Flixbus takes over Postbus. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. August 3, 2016, accessed August 3, 2016 .
  19. ↑ Flixbus on the way to monopoly: The first swallows the second. In: orf.at. August 3, 2016, accessed August 3, 2016 .
  20. ↑ a b The market leader only owns one bus. In: Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung. July 13, 2017. Retrieved August 23, 2017 .
  21. ↑ Takeover of the mobility startup LIINITA. In: flixbus.de. Flixbus GmbH, November 11, 2015, accessed on February 5, 2017 (press release).
  22. ↑ Swebus - Swebus blir FlixBus. Retrieved August 24, 2018 .
  23. ↑ FlixBus to acquire Eurolines and isilines long-distance coach services from Transdev Group. March 4, 2019, Retrieved May 19, 2019 (American English).
  24. ↑ Flixbus expands into Turkey. In: Spiegel Online . August 21, 2019, accessed May 15, 2020 .
  25. ↑ Cora Werwitzke: Flixbus starts e-bus line in Paris and plans for Germany. In: electrive.net. April 10, 2018, accessed December 4, 2019 .
  26. ↑ FlixBus et BE green lancent la 1ère ligne longue-distance au monde en autocar électrique. Press release. BE Green, March 19, 2018, accessed December 5, 2019 (French). FlixBus ouvre une ligne d'autocars électriques between Paris et Amiens. Press release. BE Green, March 19, 2018, accessed December 5, 2019 (French).
  27. ↑ Mobility of the future is green - FlixBus is launching the first German 100% electric long-distance bus. Press release. Flixmobility, October 24, 2018, accessed December 4, 2019 .
  28. ↑ Till Börner: Flixbus: Out for Germany's first long-distance e-bus connection. In: Mannheimer Morgen . December 3, 2019, accessed December 4, 2019 .
  29. ↑ Henrik Düker: FlixTrain trains now run on 100% green electricity from Greenpeace Energy. In: energy. Greenpeace Energy, April 24, 2019, accessed December 5, 2019 .
  30. ↑ Mobility of the future is green - FlixBus is launching the first German 100% electric long-distance bus. Press release. Flixmobility, October 24, 2018, accessed December 4, 2019 .
  31. ↑ Long-distance buses - Daimler invests in the mobility service provider FlixBus. In: Stuttgarter Zeitung. September 26, 2013, accessed March 28, 2014 .
  32. ↑ Europe is going green - MeinFernbus and FlixBus are taking off together. In: flixbus.de. Flixbus GmbH, January 9, 2015, accessed on January 9, 2015 (press release).
  33. ^ FlixBus and Silver Lake Announce Strategic Investment . Flixbus and Silver Lake, press release December 16, 2016.
  34. ↑ Flixmobility gets 500 million for more freedom . Cleanthinking.de, accessed on July 19, 2019
  35. ↑ FlixBus opens ticket shop in Munich. In: busplaner.de. Retrieved October 31, 2014 .
  36. ↑ FlixBus - Android app. In: Chip . Retrieved October 31, 2014 .
  37. ↑ AGB & ABB. In: flixbus.de. Flixbus GmbH, accessed on October 25, 2013 .
  38. ↑ The feared opponent of the railway. In: Berliner Morgenpost. October 22, 2016. Retrieved October 25, 2016 .
  39. ↑ Flixmobility increases the number of passengers by 37 percent. January 9, 2020, accessed May 22, 2020 .
  40. ↑ Heribert Daniel: By bus from Munich to Austria. (No longer available online.) In: dmm.travel. German mobility manager, archived from the original on September 2, 2016 ; accessed on March 28, 2014 .
  41. ↑ FlixBus long-distance bus network. In: flixbus.de. Flixmobility, accessed October 28, 2014 .
  42. ↑ Google Maps - first long-distance bus provider in the route planner. In: Westdeutsche Zeitung. October 21, 2014, accessed August 31, 2016 .
  43. ^ Philippe Jacqué: Autocars - L'allemand Flixbus se lance en France. In: Le Monde. May 19, 2015, accessed July 21, 2015 (French).
  44. ↑ Thorsten Knuf: Expansion - MeinFernbus / FlixBus conquers Italy. In: Mitteldeutsche Zeitung. July 16, 2015, accessed July 21, 2015 .
  45. ↑ Paco Mens: 8x per day en sneller dan de trein. In: verkeersbureaus.info. November 25, 2015, accessed November 28, 2015 (Dutch).
  46. ^ Phil Davies: Low-cost coach operator enters UK market. In: travelweekly. March 16, 2016, accessed March 31, 2016 .
  47. ↑ El bus de España a Francia e Italia for 9 euros se estrena en dos semanas. In: cronicaglobal.com. March 17, 2016, accessed March 31, 2016 (Spanish).
  48. ↑ FlixBus continues to expand its offer to Poland. In: flixbus.de. Flixmobility, May 10, 2016, accessed on March 11, 2018 (press release).
  49. ↑ Sebastian Glinski: FLIXBUS: Polskibus turns green. In: Der Rote Renner. December 19, 2017, accessed March 11, 2018 .
  50. ↑ Expansion into the USA: Flixbus attacks the Greyhound. In: Handelsblatt. November 8, 2017. Retrieved May 22, 2018 .
  51. ↑ German low-cost travel company: Flixbus starts US expansion. In: Spiegel Online. May 16, 2018, accessed May 22, 2018 .
  52. ↑ Jürgen Stüber: Flixbus is pushing ahead with competitive prices in the USA. In: Gründerszene. July 25, 2018. Retrieved July 27, 2018 .
  53. ↑ Les Echos: Transdev va vendre les cars Isilines et Eurolines à Flixbus , March 4, 2019 (French)
  54. ↑ Bastian Benrath, Henning Peitsmeier and Thiemo Heeg: The green giant is getting bigger and bigger. In: faz.net. May 2, 2019, accessed May 4, 2019 .
  55. ↑ Herrmann hands over railway license for FlixTrain , press release of 23 August 2017
  56. ↑ Pierre Daniel Bertholdt: New business models for long-distance passenger rail transport based on the platform concept, Freie Universität Berlin 2018 . Ed .: Free University of Berlin. Berlin July 2018.
  57. ↑ Train business starts: Flixbus starts Flixtrain
  58. ↑ Night trains from FlixTrain: Reach your destination cheaply in a sleeping car. In: flixtrain.de. Flixtrain, accessed on September 17, 2018 .
  59. ↑ Flixtrain Berlin - Cologne is coming in May . In: Eisenbahn-Revue International . No. 4 , April 2019, ISSN  1421-2811 , p. 217 .
  60. ↑ Peter Neumann: New route: Flixtrain starts operating from Berlin to Cologne. March 26, 2019, accessed March 28, 2019 .
  61. ↑ Les Échos: FlixTrain prêt à concurrencer la SNCF sur cinq liaisons longue distance , June 17, 2019 (French)
  62. ↑ Notification SFLO 2019-002. (PDF) Arafer, June 2019, accessed on June 18, 2019 (French).
  63. ^ Long-distance bus test by Stiftung Warentest In: test 7/2014, pp. 78-83 and test.de from July 11, 2014.
  64. ↑ Nadine Oberhuber: Travel darn cheap. In: The time. September 27, 2016. Retrieved September 28, 2016 .
  65. ↑ Compliance with social regulations in road traffic and working hours at long-distance bus companies From: Ministry for Labor, Integration and Social Affairs North Rhine-Westphalia from 2016-08-09
  66. ↑ Matthias Sander: Desperate fight of the Swiss against Flixbus. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung. August 31, 2016, accessed August 31, 2016 .
  67. ↑ Federal Office of Transport takes action against Flixbus. nzz.ch, October 25, 2016, accessed on October 25, 2016
  68. ↑ Flixbus defends itself against a 3000-franc fine. handelszeitung.ch, accessed on May 4, 2017
  69. ↑ Matthias Sander: 1500 euros for a long-distance bus driver. In: Tages-Anzeiger . Retrieved August 23, 2017 .
  70. ↑ Dana Heide, Milena Merten: Monopoly or not? In: Handelsblatt. April 10, 2017. Retrieved August 23, 2017 .
  71. ↑ Ingo doctor: Flixbus swallows Postbus: The long-distance bus octopus. In: taz. August 3, 2016, accessed March 14, 2018 .
  72. ↑ Benedikt Müller: Why the Cartel Office does not have to approve the long-distance bus merger. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung. August 4, 2016, accessed March 14, 2018 .
  73. ↑ Flixbus drives with impermissible conditions of carriage , help.orf.at, 2019-10-09.