founded 2011 founders daniel krauss jochen engert andr schw mmlein headquarters munich berlin area served europe key people panya putsathit ceo services intercity bus service subsidiaries paris milan website www.flixbus.com flixbus is a mobility provider offering daily intercity bus service all over europe . launched in 2013 after the deregulation of the german mobility market flixbus aimed to establish a new means of transport as reliable and green alternative to carpooling and the german railway deutsche bahn . 1 in 2015 after the merger with the competing startup meinfernbus flixbus became germany s undisputed market leader 2 operating 71 % of the german market measured in kilometres driven by the company . 3 flixbus is now rapidly expanding across europe . the company s expansion is financially backed by the global growth equity firm general atlantic 4 and investors like holtzbrinck ventures . 5 contents 1 business model 2 speed of expansion 3 the network 4 services and sustainability 5 criticism 6 references 7 external links business model edit a bus in the signature green livery setra vdl futura flixbus runs on an international mobility platform by cooperating with regional bus companies from all over europe . these local buspartners are responsible for the day to day running of routes while flixbus is in charge of the official authorizations required to operate the long distance network . the flixbus team handles network planning marketing pricing quality management and the customer service . this unique business model leads to a high scalability and has allowed a tremendous speed of international growth . 6 on the other hand the quality of buses is subject to the fleet available to subcontractors unlike competitors who own all or most of their buses and can thus guarantee consistent service . furthermore flixbus has often handed off the risk of low occupancy to subcontractors as their bottom line depends on the farebox revenue of the routes they operate on . speed of expansion edit flixbus was founded 2011 in munich by daniel krauss jochen engert and andr schw mmlein and launched its first route in february 2013 in germany . one year later in 2014 flixbus already operated a nationwide network . along with the merger with meinfernbus the company also announced the internationalization of its business model . in summer 2015 flixbus launched its italian subsidiary in milan 7 and entered the recently liberalized french market with flixbus france . 8 in november 2015 flixbus announced its new entity flixbus b.v. in the netherlands and with this the very first national dutch intercity bus network . after germany france and italy this is the company s fourth national market 9 while the company s international lines also connect cities in austria switzerland belgium luxembourg sweden and denmark . 10 in january 2016 flixbus announced its entry to the markets of central and eastern europe with the new branch flixbus cee . this includes six countries czech republic slovakia hungary poland slovenia and croatia with new lines in the making . 11 12 in march 2016 the company launched first lines to the united kingdom and spain . 13 on 29 june 2016 it was announced that flixbus had purchased the mainland european and anglo european services of megabus from stagecoach group with effect from 1 july 2016 with stagecoach remaining as contractor to operate the services . 14 on 3 august 2016 it was announced that german competitor postbus would be acquired from deutsche post for an undisclosed sum thus cementing the near monopolistic position flixbus enjoys on the german market . the merger is to be completed by 1 november with the postbus brand name and identity disappearing and all buses and routes redesigned as flixbus . the network edit the network includes approximately 80 000 daily connections to 700 destinations in 18 countries . 15 in the beginning of 2016 the company announced its plan of building a long distance network from bordeaux to bucharest . 16 services and sustainability edit the provider emphasizes the sustainability of its long distance buses lower prices and free wi fi on board . customers can voluntarily compensate their individual co2 emissions during the online booking process . the amount of the compensation is between 1 3 % of the ticket price and goes to internationally certified climate projects to offset the equivalent of co2 emissions . 17 criticism edit like many competitors in the german intercity bus market flixbus has been accused of unfulfillable contracts with sub contractors that lead to excessive working hours for drivers and low salaries . critics point out that drivers must clean the buses or sell snacks in what is deemed free time in order to not exceed the limits for time at the wheel . furthermore flixbus has gotten into conflict with several cities that moved the long distance bus station due to the congestion associated with the rapidly growing bus sector that was virtually non existent prior to 2012 . several cities have characterized the behavior of flixbus as blackmail with regards to their business decisions to serve or not serve certain stations depending among other things upon the height of access charges which flixbus sharply criticizes . in this they are similar to low cost airlines which also change the airports they serve at short notice due to landing fees . unlike competing train services and trucks buses do not pay any road toll in germany which has been called a hidden subsidy by politicians of spd and alliance 90 the greens . following the acquisition of postbus in 2016 flixbus gained roughly 80 % of the german long distance bus market which was criticised by various media outlets 18 19 20 as a de facto monopoly and harmful for competition . furthermore fears of rising prices and less service to marginal destinations were expressed . references edit zach netzer 17 december 2014 . derailing the train how intercity buses are changing the way we travel in germany . fernbusmarkt w chst weiter mdr.de . www.mdr.de in german . 2015 11 08 . retrieved 2015 11 11 . fernbusmarkt startet stabil ins neue jahr . iges institute . 9 february 2016 . dieter fockenbrock 9 january 2015 . ticket to ride a merger between germany s two largest long distance bus operators has rattled the country s state owned rail company . ingrid lunden 16 january 2015 . holtzbrinck ventures closes 331m fund to back more consumer and e commerce startups . mobility challengers company presentation by jochen engert founder & managing director of flixbus at the noah 2015 conference in berlin . 10 june 2015 . flixbus viaggiare per l italia spendendo solo 1 euro e 9 euro per l europa . 4 august 2015 . autocars l allemand flixbus se lance en france . 19 may 2015 . flixbus opent netwerk intercitybussen in nederland . 24 november 2015 . di lucchio maurizio 12 august 2015 . flixbus la startup degli autobus low cost che vuole creare 1.000 posti di lavoro . johnston raymond 14 january 2016 . flixbus expands international service from czech cities . blaguss f hrt mit deutschem flixbus nach osteuropa . 21 january 2016 . flixbus enters uk bus & coach buyer 24 march 2016 flixbus to acquire megabus . www.flixbus.co.uk . retrieved 2016 06 29 . davies phil 16 march 2016 . low cost coach operator enters uk market . eder kornfeld rosa 21 january 2016 . blaguss und flixbus spannen gr nes netz in europa . ein gr nes netz von bordeaux bis bukarest . 22 january 2016 . http www.taz.de 5328831 http www.spiegel.de wirtschaft service flixbus kauft postbus was die fernbus fusion fuer sie bedeutet a 1105929.html http www.welt.de wirtschaft article157466777 das bedeutet das neue fernbus monopol fuer kunden.html external links edit wikimedia commons has media related to flixbus . official website retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title flixbus & oldid 742324484 categories bus companies of germanyonline companiestransportation network companies2011 establishments in germanyhidden categories cs1 german language sources de commons category with local link same as on wikidataofficial website different in wikidata and wikipedia navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version in other projects wikimedia commons languages deutschfran aishrvatskiitalianonederlandsti ng vi t edit links this page was last modified on 3 october 2016 at 01 34 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view