Why Uklon transports to Europe for the price of a single taxi ride. All about the new Uklon Travel Bus service and its prospects in the international transportation market
Uklon’s transformation from a taxi-hailing service to an ecosystem of not only urban, but also intercity and international trips is gaining momentum. A few weeks ago, the company announced the test launch of Uklon Travel Bus bus flights to two international airports — from Kyiv to Warsaw’s Frederic Chopin Airport and from Odessa to Chisinau Airport. And on July 20, the first flight to the airport in the capital of Moldova took place.
Uklon’s transformation from a taxi-hailing service to an ecosystem of not only urban, but also intercity and international trips is gaining momentum. A few weeks ago, the company announced the test launch of Uklon Travel Bus bus flights to two international airports — from Kyiv to Warsaw’s Frederic Chopin Airport and from Odessa to Chisinau Airport. And on July 20, the first flight to the airport in the capital of Moldova took place.
Uklon Travel Bus is not just another feature in a mobile application, but a logical stage of evolution from a mono-product service to a SuperApp ecosystem for travel. After testing the Travel section for selling tickets of third-party carriers, the company took a direct step into the market of intercity and international passenger transportation.
In the absence of civil air traffic and the maximum load on the railway, buses remain the main bridge between Ukraine and Europe, and demand seems to significantly exceed quality supply. Plus, Uklon in this case offered the possibility of a transfer directly to the airports, which is convenient for those passengers who are moving further and do not plan to spend time in Warsaw or Chisinau.
We tried to figure out how much the price of Uklon Travel Bus differs from other passenger transport alternatives in these directions, and also asked the company why it chose these routes, whether it will expand the geography of international flights, and whether the first pancake, that is, the first flight within the framework of the new service, turned out to be a success.
Baggage and conditions
A Uklon Travel Bus passenger is entitled to carry one piece of hand luggage (45×35×20 cm) up to 5 kg and one piece of luggage (50×80×30 cm) up to 30 kg. The declared comfort of travel includes Wi-Fi and air conditioning, as well as a toilet and a socket for charging gadgets.
What about money? How much does it cost to get to Warsaw and Chisinau?
No matter how much passengers value comfort, a familiar brand, or the ability to transfer directly to the airport, the basic factor of choice for most is price. So we decided to compare prices on the Odesa — Chisinau and Kyiv — Warsaw routes with other bus carriers, as well as trains.
However, there is a nuance. Currently, Uklon Travel Bus is offering promotional prices for routes launched by the company to European airports — you can get to Warsaw or Chisinau for just UAH 499. According to the announcement on the company’s website, the promotion is valid from July 27 to September 30.
Of course, this price is not market price and is currently at least several times lower than that of other carriers. So it is somewhat incorrect to compare here — it is clear that the company is currently dumping in order to attract as large an audience as possible and promote this service, offering foreign trips at the price of a one-time taxi ride or a burger in a Kyiv cafe.
For example, in the Uklon application itself, most offers on the Odesa-Chisinau route are 1,000 UAH, while the promotional price on Uklon Travel Bus is half that.
At the same time, in the Kyiv-Warsaw direction in the Uklon application, most bus carriers offer prices around UAH 3,000, which means that the Uklon Travel Bus promotional offer is six times lower.
However, it is worth noting that a few weeks ago, before the launch of the promotion, tickets for Uklon Travel Bus were slightly cheaper than the market average. Before introducing very generous promotional offers, the company offered tickets for the Odesa-Chisinau route for 800 UAH, and for the Kyiv-Warsaw route for 2400 UAH. We managed to check the previous prices.
This, as they say, is «more like the truth» — as we can see, the prices initially offered by Uklon before the launch of the promotion were in line with the market. For example, this is approximately the same price for the Kyiv-Warsaw route as the popular bus carrier Flixbus, which has an extensive network of routes throughout Europe.
If you check the prices for the two above-mentioned destinations on the Busfor ticket service, then, for example, on August 4, you can buy tickets for August 15 for buses Kyiv-Warsaw for from 2,500 UAH to 3,700 UAH.
Meanwhile, prices on the Busfor website for the Odesa-Chisinau route for the same date start from 750 UAH and go up to 1099 UAH.
As for trains as an alternative to bus services, we have a systemic problem — it is quite difficult to grab tickets, which is realistic to do only in the first days (and sometimes hours) after they appear in the system. And in terms of price, if we talk about the direct Kyiv-Warsaw train, they are twice as expensive as the bus.
The alternative via Chełm will be somewhat more profitable in terms of money, but not in terms of convenience. Ukrainians are often forced to get to Warsaw from Chełm by taxi, because they do not have time to conveniently transfer to the Chełm-Warsaw train, especially if the previous train is late. But even under optimal conditions, the trip will not be cheap either. A ticket to Chełm costs over 3,000 UAH, plus a ticket by Polish railways will «pull» another 13-18 euros.
What does the company say?
Uklon claims that the first Travel Bus trip on the Odesa-Chisinau route went according to plan, but, as with any new service, the audience needs time to learn about the opportunity and get used to the new travel format. «The first flights are filled gradually, and not immediately to full capacity. This is the expected dynamics for the pilot phase,» Uklon added in response to a request from dev.ua.
The company states that Uklon Travel Bus users have access to options such as internet via Starlink, the ability to choose a seat in the cabin, gifts from partners, as well as direct flights directly to the aforementioned airports, which saves passengers flying further afield money on taxis to the airport.
Chisinau Airport, photo from DW.com
The choice of the Kyiv-Warsaw and Odesa-Chisinau routes, as Uklon claims, is primarily related to the closed Ukrainian airspace, because for Ukrainians, the Warsaw and Chisinau airports actually serve as the closest «entry points» to international air traffic.
«These destinations are not random, but those where Ukrainians already travel en masse to continue their journey by plane. Uklon Travel Bus in these destinations covers a real, existing need: users do not need to separately look for transport to the airport — the entire „city — airport“ trip is solved with one ticket,» the company says.
Regarding the economics of these destinations, they add, we deliberately chose routes for the pilot with already existing organic demand, rather than trying to create it artificially. «This reduces the risks for the launch: we see that people already travel in these directions, and Uklon Travel Bus simply offers them a comfortable alternative with direct access to the airport,» Uklon states.
The company does not disclose detailed financial figures for each route — they emphasize that the pilot stage is precisely needed to test the model in practice before scaling it to new destinations.
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