Attendance at “Macron coaches” remained stable in the first half of 2022 compared to the previous six months, a level 30% lower than in the first half of 2019 before the health crisis, according to the Transport Regulatory Authority (ART ).
More than 3.3 million passengers were transported by intercity coaches in the first half of 2022, reducing the gap with the same period in 2019 to around 30%, compared to more than 75% in the first half of 2021, indicates the ART semi-annual update published this Wednesday. The supply of freely organized coach services (SLO) remained during the first six months of the year around 20% lower in the first half compared to the same period in 2019.
The turnover of the sector was between 18 and 21 million euros in the first quarter and between 28 and 32 million in the second, according to ART, which does not give precise figures to preserve business secrecy.
lack of drivers
The occupancy rate of the coaches was high, returning to the high level of 2019, so that the income per passenger per 100 km reached the highest level ever recorded in the second quarter, with 5.50 euros. For the operators, this is “partly a direct consequence of the rise in fuel prices and other production factors, but also of an increase in demand,” the Authority said.
The seven operators present in the market – among which FlixBus and BlaBlaCar are ultra-dominant – declare that attendance in the third quarter of 2022 could return to the level of 2019, the summer having been good. But a lack of drivers could hamper future market growth, ART noted.
“Macron cars” had fallen in 2020 to their 2016 level, just after the liberalization of the sector. The branch only started to really recover in the summer of 2021.
Source: BFM TV
