Coronavirus raises costs, reduces ticket revenue at Volán

Tourism

Volánbusz has faced a couple of 100 million forints of extra costs but also saw its revenue fall by several billion forints because of the coronavirus outbreak, state-owned bus company chairman-CEO Ilona Dávid said on Friday on Kossuth Rádió, according to a report by state news wire MTI.

Up till now the company has distributed around 170,000 face masks and 775,000 gloves to its employees and used more than 80,000 liters of disinfectants.

Because of lockdown measures to fight the virus the bus company has lost around 80% of its passengers but switching to a summer timetable for its services has only reduced their capacity by around 10%, limiting possible savings on operating costs.

Dávid said special health protection measures will remain in force at the company and they do not expect the situation to return to normal this year. In the previous months, Volánbusz has canceled international trips but now they will be restarting trips to Austria, she added.

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