COVID Year II: The Bus Is Back on the Road - Requests up Sharply

Nuremberg/Milan, May 03, 2022 - The new report on the long-distance bus market, prepared by the Milan Polytechnic's TRASPOL Laboratory based on CheckMyBus data from 2021, tells the story of forced cohabitation with Covid, and how the bus industry, after losses in 2020, has recovered and responded to this incredible challenge.

After the upheavals brought to the industry by the 2020 pandemic, 2021 looks like the year when Italians learned to live with Covid, and attempted an initial return to normalcy. Indeed, bus searches on our online platform have returned to significant growth as of May 2021, while prices remain high-but stable, a sign of a market that is seeking a new equilibrium.

The year 2021 actually sees a higher number of infections than 2020, but the arrival of vaccines, and the development of stricter rules has made it possible to deal with the pandemic without having to resort to lockdwons. These new tools, such as rapid testing and the Green Pass, have finally enabled travelers to be able to return to bus travel more peacefully. Learning to live with the virus has resulted in a new desire to travel, which has led to a significant increase in bookings.

The first months of 2021 continue in the wave of the previous year, and it is only from May, with the end of the long winter quarantine, that Italians return en masse to travel. The second half of 2021 sees a volume of searches well above 2020, and closer to previous years. As an example, average requests for each Origin-Destination pair are up 70 percent from the previous year.

The average ticket price in 2020 went totally against the trend in previous years: after a steady decline that lasted for years, the restrictions and reduced number of rides in 2020 forced bus companies to significantly raise the cost of service to curb the losses incurred. The year 2021 sees prices continue along these lines, but in a more stable manner. The first half of the year is obviously much higher than the corresponding period in 2020, but the second half sees a decrease of about 10%, and a partial return to the month-to-month dynamics typical of pre-pandemic years.

The analysis of macro-areas and inter-regional relations brings us one of the surprises of this 2021: for the first time since the beginning of CheckMyBus data collection, North-North relations have become the first in the country, surpassing the now second South-South relations. Specifically, North-North relations grew by 91 percent in 2021, while the others grew little or even declined, as in the case of North-South relations (-25 percent compared to 2020, and -75 percent compared to 2019). The latter decline should not come as a surprise, however, as long-distance runs, such as precisely the North-South relations that travel the entire peninsula, have been the most affected by the pandemic: by 2021 there were few travelers willing to stay in an enclosed environment for a long-distance trip of more than 10 hours.

Instead, the profile of the user base returns to a pinker one, thanks to an increase of about 2 percentage points in female travelers, and the percentage of under-24 users grows significantly, amounting to as much as a quarter of the total user base in 2021. The reasons are still to be found in the pandemic: young people, who are less vulnerable to the virus, are more willing to face the risks associated with travel than the older population.

Rome and Naples remain the most searched destinations. Milan, on the other hand, loses position to Turin, and Malpensa airport grows by three positions to become the fifth most searched destination overall. Airport connections grow from 2020 by about 10 percent, focusing on the hubs of Rome and Milan, but new connections to Venice and Bologna airports also emerge. Prices for airport connections remain quite high, about 50 percent higher than normal routes, and they also increased in the second half of the year rather than stabilizing.

The fifth annual report on the performance of the long-distance bus market in Italy, prepared by Milan Polytechnic TRANSPOL in collaboration with CheckMyBus, includes three years of monitoring. The entire report can be downloaded here (Italian): Report on the Long-Distance Bus Market in Italy | YEAR 2021.

CheckMyBus, the international long-distance bus search engine shows real-time departures and prices in more than 80 countries. With more than 2090 bus companies and millions of weekly departures, customers can have access to a virtual network of bus connections worldwide. Tickets and more information at www.checkmybus.it.

TRASPOL is part of the DAStU (Department of Architecture and Urban Studies) of the Politecnico di Milano. The Laboratory is involved in research, training and consulting in the field of transport and infrastructure, particularly the relationship between public planning, economics and regulation. TRASPOL has been studying the long-distance bus market in Italy and abroad since 2011, in the broader context of long-distance passenger transport (rail, air). More information: www.traspol.polimi.it

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