According to N-TV Managing Director André Schwämmlein of Flixbus has acknowledged this and has said that the company is in “an early stage of business development in Russia.” He also states that Flixbus is already present in Moscow with a small team of staff to prepare to enter the market.”
From the statements made by Schwämmlein one can assume the way Flixbus is operating in Europe will be copied in Russia. Moscow will be the centre of the operation. The network will be build by involving Russian bus companies, although N-TV also reports that according to the Russian newspaper ‘Kommersant’ there are companies who are against Flixbus entering the Russian market because of the risk of creating a monopoly. Flixbus is already active in almost 30 countries.
Flixbus also announced late last year it will expand its coach services in the United States of America and plans connections in the USA with destinations in Texas and the eastern United States – including New York City, where a second office has now been opened. In the United States, FlixBus launched on May 31, 2018 with 27 destinations, including major cities in the southwest such as Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Phoenix. In July, the offer was already doubled to connect to other destinations in California, such as the San Francisco Bay Area. “In just five months, FlixBus has established itself in the western US and proved to be a welcome travel alternative for Americans”, said André Schwämmlein. “Our plan is for 2019 to be well over 100 green FlixBuses on the American highways.” Twelve regional bus partners currently serve around 60 FlixBus destinations in the US. Globally, FlixBus works with 300 bus partners in 29 countries and has created more than 7,000 jobs for bus drivers.
