OREANDA-NEWS. Estonian-based coach operator Lux Express continues to challenge the market. Taking on cars and planes Lux Express positions itself as the preferred mode of travelling around the Baltic countries and beyond to Poland and Russia. With 2.1 million passengers in 2016 and a fleet of more than 100 high-end Scania Irizar coaches, Lux Express excels in comfort, frequency and on time performance.

When the Baltic countries regained independence in the early 1990s, Lux Express founder Hugo Osula had a vision to build a coach service from the Baltic capitals to major European cities.

However, low-cost air travel was increasingly threatening the business and Lux Express was forced to rethink its model. «We were operating two double-decker busses daily from Riga to London and it became obvious that this wouldn’t last for long,» says Osula. «We started to prepare for the changing market and were forced to define who the bus passengers would be, what kind of buses we would need and how logistics should be organised. And the most importantly: who would carry the company into the next decade.»

«The best that is available»

With this reorientation, Lux Express invested in the flagship Scania Irizar PB. «Our aim has always been to offer the top line, the best that is available from a technological perspective but also from the emotional perspective,» says Hannes Saarpuu, CEO of Lux Express.

Lux Express operates in the Baltic countries, Russia and Poland.Josu_Altzelai

Meanwhile, Lux Express started examining onboard infotainment systems. «In this world a lot of things are copied and we started looking at what the others were doing. By others, we saw what airlines were providing on long-distance flights. We were somewhat limited by the technical options at the time and what we had in the beginning is not what our passengers today enjoy, including the wide selection of films.»