European airport transfer specialist, Flibco, has launched its first service in the UK. It cut the ribbon on the first coach to depart London Stansted Airport for central London.

The company is partnering with The Coach Travel Group to launch the service, which is to operate 96 times a day, 24/7, with departures each way every 30 minutes. It connects Liverpool Street Station and Stratford Station in London to the airport.

Flibco secured the London Stansted Airport contract through a competitive tender process. The company provides the marketing, software and booking behind the service, while The Coach Travel Group (TCTG) operates the vehicles. They are being operated under the licence of TCTG operator ReadyGroup from a Stansted operating centre.

Ten new 59-seat tri-axle Scania Tourings are being used on the service, running in Flibco’s bright green livery. The coaches were jointly specified by Flibco and TCTG.

Flibco has applied its airport transport expertise and AI-powered scheduling to ensure timetables are aligned with flight departures and arrivals. The service will scale up during peak hours, ensuring passengers always have a reliable travel option when they need it most. To maximise flexibility, standard tickets will be valid all day until 4am the following morning, allowing passengers to board any available service. Fully flexible tickets can be cancelled or refunded up to a few minutes before departure. Prices start from £13.33 one way when booked online, with return tickets from £18.98.

£45m investment

Speaking during the launch, Flibco CEO, Tobias Stüber, said the company’s mission is to deliver transport differently to what has been done before. He said: “When I started this journey with Flibco, we said we had to go to Stansted. It’s a European hub, Stansted is a must.”

He described Flibco as not a coach company, but as ‘digital experts’. The business creates ‘win-win-win’ scenarios, he says: “It’s a win for local coach operators. It’s a win for the airport. And it’s a win for the customers, as we make it easy to book a service for them.”

He said Flibco is ‘super hungry’ to bring some ‘fresh air’ to the industry. Part of Sales-Lentz Group (SLG), the largest bus operator in Luxemburg, the company has already established operations across France, Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany. This expansion into the UK is a major milestone for Flibco, which plans to invest £45m into the country over the next five years, expecting creating 80 jobs as the service grows. “We see huge potential here. We want to be much bigger and I’m sure we will do it,” said Tobias.

Tobias thanked the team responsible for delivering the Stansted service, including Tom Stables, CEO at The Coach Travel Group.

“It’s very exciting to be working with someone with the energy of Flibco, who are hugely enthusiastic and bring a new approach” – Tom Stables, TCTG CEO

On the new venture with Flibco, Tom told B&CB: “It’s very exciting to be working with someone with the energy of Flibco, who are hugely enthusiastic and bring a new approach.”

Tom said he would definitely like to explore providing more similar services in the future, in addition to the usual mix of private hire, schools, trips and tours that is the bread and butter of the Groups’ members’ work.

Linking the UK coach market up with Flibco is well-known coach industry veteran Danny Elford, Director at Transpire Group.

Speaking to B&CB during the launch, Tobias Stüber said: “Flibco isn’t really a bus company. What we do is go into a country and work with coach operators and let them do what they do best. We own zero vehicles. For us, it’s the technical know-how. We’re filling the bus and building the network. The rest is down to the transport operator.

“And we are building that based on data. We monitor the service and times closely. That’s why our customer satisfaction is over 90%.”

On what Flibco needs from its operator partners to achieve this, Tobias listed clean vehicles, well-trained drivers and modern coaches. The services are intended to be as welcoming as possible to passengers and wheelchair access should be provided. Tobias said: “We want people who we can treat as experts on the road. When that works, it’s a winning situation.”

He stressed that Flibco does not change partners regularly, having worked with one for 12 years.

Beyond Stansted, Flibco is aiming to expand to other airports, including Manchester and Luton, potentially.

On what Tobias describes as the ‘spirit’ of the company, he said: “We have flat hierarchical levels here. People who work here are not employees, they are experts. Experts need a vision and a mission and then they perform.”

He said Flibco is changing the way the industry works, introducing a four-day work week in its operations across some of the countries it works in. The intention is to do the same in the UK once the service has settled in and it has the team it wants. “It’s not about working less, it’s about working different,” said Tobias.