Coach firms reduce their fleets and staff

PALMA
BALEARIC coach companies are going to start downsizing their fleets this autumn as a direct result of declining business over the past few years, said Salvador Servera, managing director of the Regional Transport Federation yesterday.

According to recent surveys carried out by the Federation, private Majorcan coach companies could have lost as much as 15 percent of their business during July and August this year even though these are peak months of the holiday season.

The figure however, is slightly less than losses being reported elsewhere in the Balearics.
The Federation confirms that the downturn in business comes even though the car hire fleet in the Islands has been around 20 percent under its normal capacity.

With not enough cars to go round the number of visitors requesting them, this should have given coach firms a better opportunity for work such as pick-ups and drops-offs at airports, and excursions. But Servera confirmed that the demand for coach excursions has dropped by 30 percent with the result that many of the trips currently on offer will be taken off the list next year.