FlixBus Starts a Non-Stop Florenc–Airport Bus, the Second New Rival to Airport Express in Three Weeks

The bus between central Prague and its airport has gained another operator. FlixBus has announced a direct service between Florenc coach station and Václav Havel Airport, with the first departure on Thursday 12 November, Zdopravy.cz reported. It will run thirteen pairs of departures a day, will not stop anywhere in between, and the company promises a journey time of 30 minutes.

What it costs

Fares start at 78 crowns, though Zdopravy.cz notes that most tickets are currently on sale for around 100 crowns. FlixBus adds a booking fee of 9 crowns. For comparison, a single ticket on the Airport Express run by Prague's public transport company DPP costs 200 crowns, and BusAir, which started on 26 October, charges 125 (both figures as Zdopravy.cz reported at BusAir's launch).

FlixBus is not new to the airport: it already serves it, but only as a stop on long-distance routes, mostly at night. What changes is that it now sells the city leg as a line of its own. In practice, Zdopravy.cz explains, the service is an extension of some existing long-distance departures — the line from Liberec, for example, will carry on from Florenc to the airport after it arrives in Prague.

From two operators to four

Until the end of October the route had two operators, according to Zdopravy.cz: DPP's Airport Express from the main railway station, and RegioJet, which calls at the airport on its Prague–Karlovy Vary–Cheb line. At the end of October Dinarica entered with BusAir, linking the airport with Hradčanská and the main station. FlixBus makes it four inside three weeks.

The new service also covers a different corner of the centre. Airport Express and BusAir both work the main station; FlixBus comes in from Florenc, the city's main coach terminal, which is where its long-distance passengers already arrive.

Reading it

The source for the service itself is the operator's own announcement, relayed by Zdopravy.cz, and the figures — the 30 minutes, the 78-crown floor — are FlixBus's. What can be said from outside is that a route DPP priced at 200 crowns from January has, within weeks, attracted two private entrants pricing at around half of that or less. When BusAir arrived, Zdopravy.cz reported that Dinarica had spent months struggling to get permission to drive into the airport on grounds of limited capacity for buses; the article on FlixBus does not say whether that question arose again.