FlixBus launches in India

Bus stations in major Indian cities are a kind of microcosmos, bustling worlds in their own right. Crowds of people in front of buses, luggage tied up into packages, street vendors selling lentil patties and chai in tiny paper cups. And among them yelling drivers, people waiting on plastic sheets and countless colourful buses. This is the world that Flix SE, the bus and rail operator that was established in Germany, is now entering. From 6 February 2024, more than 200 services per day are to link a total of 46 cities, including Delhi, Agra and Jodhpur. At first, FlixBus will cooperate with five local bus companies from Delhi and initially expand services around Delhi. The next step will be to launch the first connections in the south of the country. Rather than establishing its own fleet of buses in India, Flix will mainly take care of the booking process, as well as customer service, networking planning and marketing. FlixBus has considerable international experience, especially of electronic booking and network planning.

“With our launch in India, we are now expanding our network to include South Asia - just four months after entering the market in Chile,” says André Schwämmlein, Flix co-founder and CEO. “Our aim is to offer travellers in India a new standard of travel.” India is already the 43rd country in the international Flix network. Originally a Munich-based start-up, the company has grown to become a global player that now runs operations in both the US and South America. America’s famous Greyhound long-distance buses have also belonged to the company for some years now.

Worth an estimated 30 billion euros, the Indian bus market is the second largest in the world and is therefore particularly attractive. As Schwämmlein explains, there is great demand in India for sustainable collective travel options and the market offers enormous growth potential: with more than 1.4 billion inhabitants, India overtook China as the world’s most populous country in 2023.

Germany’s Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport welcomed the investment: “The expansion of the German Flix company not only contributes to global networking but also promotes efficient and therefore sustainable transport solutions,” said Transport Minister Dr Volker Wissing.