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All hail the Flixbus, a spiritual successor to the Megabus, which came to steal its predecessor’s lunch with a combination of Brat-green aesthetic and meme-tastic social media presence.
Founded in Munich in 2011, the budget bus service began providing trips from Europe to our little island in 2016. It was only as recently as 2021 that Flixbus launched routes within the UK, linking up the likes of London, Manchester, Birmingham and Leeds. And now it's expanding even further, having announced eight new destinations and a host of new connections to celebrate its fifth birthday.
To really get the celebrations going, Flix is offering tickets for less than a fiver between April 13 and June 30. As Vengaboys didn’t quite say: ‘The Flixbus is coming / And everybody’s jumping.’
The new routes will come into play in April, bringing the grand total of Flixbus destinations to more than 100. It’s good news for the lucky people of Doncaster, Blackpool, Halifax, Huddersfield and Milton Keynes, all of whom are now offered a chance to ride the Flix to and from home. In addition to this, there’ll be daily Flixbus services between York, Heathrow and central London.
There’ll be new connections between Bristol Airport and Plymouth, Taunton, Cheltenham and Exeter, while travellers will also be able to hop on the Flixbus from Leicester and Nottingham to both Plymouth and Bristol. And that’s not all! The big green bus is also offering routes between Manchester Airport and Newcastle, Sunderland, Middlesbrough, Leeds, Huddersfield and Bradford.
East Anglia will get in on the action, too, with new services between Norwich and Heathrow, as well as to Birmingham and Plymouth. Colchester, Chelmsford and Ipswich are also joining the network and there’ll increased direct connections to London and Oxford from Birmingham Airport.
In fact, airport transfers should get a little easier across the board, as new services are set to launch between Brighton and Heathrow, with direct connections from Gatwick to Leeds and Sheffield.
FlixBus UK PR lead Sarah Bartlett said: ‘Five years ago, we set out with a bold ambition to revolutionise coach travel, and with a network of over 100 destinations, it’s clear passengers have fallen in love with FlixBus! We’re offering tickets for less than a fiver to bring even more joy to travellers using our affordable, comfortable and reliable services.’
It’s a couple of years since we charted the decline of the Megabus and the rise of Flixbus, which offers slightly more expensive journeys. Even the promotional prices for the latter’s fifth birthday, which start at £4.49, are a far cry from the former’s budget-friendly £1 offering.
Back then, FlixBus’s director of brand & creative told us: ‘It would seem unlikely that a bus could build and sustain a place in pop culture. But against the odds, Flix has created one.’
Here’s the full list of expanded UK Flixbus services in 2026:
New destinations
- Doncaster
- Blackpool
- Halifax
- Huddersfield
- Milton Keynes
- Colchester
- Chelmsford
- Ipswich
New connections
- Brighton to Heathrow Airport
- Leeds to Gatwick Airport & Manchester Airport
- Sheffield to Gatwick Airport
- Newcastle upon Tyne to Manchester Airport
- Sunderland to Manchester Airport
- Middlesbrough to Manchester Airport
- Bradford to Manchester Airport
- Norwich to Heathrow, Birmingham and Plymouth
Plus: A new London Superloop bus route is launching: stops, route and everything you need to know
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