Kevin Hart, the company’s director, said that the firm’s revenue had now started to decline significantly, while their costs had remained the same.
He added that the situation had left the business with no other choice but to scale back its services.
‘Excluding half-term in September we were running at between 58,000 to 59,000 passenger journeys each week, which is still significantly down,’ he said.
‘Since then it has been declining and there were 55,000 passenger journeys in October and 51,000 passenger journeys in November.’
He added: ‘In the three days so far this week [from Monday to Wednesday] there have been 17,000 passenger journeys, which tells us that things are starting to fade away. You have to bear in mind that of those 17,000 journeys, 5,500 of them are made up of kids on school buses.’
This week, Stagecoach – one of the UK’s largest bus operators – reported a 92% plunge in half-year profits and warned that many workers would never go back to commuting five days per week.
But Mr Hart said that it was currently unclear what the long-term impact of the pandemic would be on LibertyBus’s commuter services.
‘To get back to 2019 levels, it will probably take a couple of years. But the big thing is home working and, at the moment, we do not know how much of a long-term effect that will have,’ he said.
‘We have been managing our staff levels and talking with the unions about any challenges we have been having to make sure we can survive and that staff get paid.
‘We are not part of the payroll co-funding scheme, so we do need more money and support from the government. We have been talking to them and seem to be just about getting there now.’
The final departures from Liberation Station and the inbound services on routes 1, 1G, 3, 5, 7, 9, 12A and 15 will not operate from Monday. Full details are by visiting libertybus.je.
