Lisbon, Nov. 10, 2025 (Lusa) - FlixBus has filed a legal action to protect its rights, freedoms, and guarantees against the Rede Nacional de Expressos (RNE) after being refused access to the Sete Rios Terminal in Lisbon, the bus company announced on Monday.
In a statement, FlixBus justified the action "with the urgency of ensuring compliance with the determinations of the competent regulatory authority [the Mobility and Transport Authority] before the RNE creates a situation of real capacity depletion".
"The exclusion of competing operators by the terminal manager represents an unacceptable obstacle to free competition and passenger rights," said the company, which demands a "swift response".
FlixBus estimated losses of €12.5 million in 2024 due to not having access to the Sete Rios terminal in Lisbon, despite a regulator's decision recognising the multinational's access, which has yet to be applied.
In 2023, FlixBus submitted a formal complaint to the Mobility and Transport Authority (AMT) for being denied access to the Sete Rios terminal, operated by the Rede Nacional de Expressos. In May of this year, the regulator determined that access to that infrastructure was fair and non-discriminatory.
The AMT considered that "the exhaustion of the terminal's capacity has not been proven and the existence of available capacity has been confirmed", and that the manager must therefore "provide access to the terminal, within the available hours, which cannot be denied, to all operators who request it", pointing out that violations of these rules "constitute administrative offences".
"At the same time as they are denying our requests, we are noticing an increase in services operated by Rede Expressos," denounced FlixBus at a meeting with journalists last week.
The transport company, which operates in Europe, the United States and Asia, said it didn't understand how, six months later, the decision had still not been implemented, and stated that "Lisbon is the only European capital where it doesn't have access to the city's main terminal".
"If we have to go to the European Commission and the Court of Justice of the European Union to comply with an AMT decision, we will do so, but we would like the Portuguese authorities to take action," said Pablo Pastega, general manager of FlixBus in Portugal and vice-president for Western Europe.
On the same day, Rede Expressos said it would continue to refuse new operators at the Sete Rios Terminal in Lisbon, which it holds the concession for, emphasising that it has reached the limit of its operational and physical capacity.
"Rede Expressos, which holds the concession for the Sete Rios Bus Terminal, considers that access by new operators to this space, under the current conditions, is not viable and would jeopardise the safety of passengers, workers and property," it said in a statement, stressing that it is maintaining its refusal of access to new services, namely those proposed by FlixBus and BlaBlaCar.
FlixBus has proposed introducing 96 new timetables, and BlaBlaCar another 12.
"The Sete Rios terminal was conceived as a provisional solution in 2004, and today it is highly out of step with demand, despite the investments made in this public asset over decades by the company," added the concessionaire.
Rede Expressos appealed against the AMT's decision to open the terminal to new operators.
MPE/ADB // ADB.
Lusa
