20% increase forced company to make 8,000 more trips to meet demand.
In the first three quarters of this year, Horários do Funchal (HF) transported almost 16 million passengers, while in the same period of the previous year – between January and September 2023 – it had transported 12.8 million. An increase of around 20% that results in the Government’s new commitment to creating a “very advantageous” tariff framework, revealed Cláudio Mantero, head of the HF Studies, Planning and International Relations Office at the ‘Thinking about the Future’ conference that today debates Mobility in Funchal.
Free travel passes for students up to 23 years old and for seniors over 65 years old is a “social measure with a very big impact”.
It reveals that Horários do Funchal responds to this “growing trend [in demand]”, revealing that this year alone, the carrier carried out “almost 8 thousand more trips” compared to the frequencies carried out in the previous year.
Despite the significant growth in users, he acknowledges that “changing modes is a complicated task”, that is, “transitioning to public transport is not easy”.
It reveals that the tourism market also contributes to the increase in passengers transported.
He reports that “the increase in HF’s supply is a robust increase but we are facing difficulties on the drivers’ side”, noting that the company is facing “great difficulties on the human resources side”, a workforce problem that is common across Europe.
Another relevant detail is the quality of the HF fleet, the result of a “very significant” renewal, reducing the average age of the fleet to 6.7 years in 2023, which is lower than the European average for public transport.