Travel startup FromAtoB discontinues service

The FromAtoB platform announces its end. The reason is the economic imbalance caused by the coronavirus crisis. The industry association also believes the state is responsible.

Corona has already cost some companies their existence: The latest example is the travel start-up FromAtoB, which discontinued its service on December 28, 2020, according to a statement on its website. The reason given is "economic developments". It continues: "After months of hard work and hoping for better times, we have to admit that the travel industry has still not recovered."

The start-up was founded in Aachen in 2008 and had developed a search engine for the perfect trip, combining all offers from train, bus and flight to carpooling. The algorithm was also able to incorporate individual wishes, such as those for the lowest possible CO2 emissions or very fast journeys. The company was supported by the EU Commission and the German government.

The European industry association Allrail believes that responsibility lies primarily with the railroads, which are owned by the states and do not provide independent platforms such as FromAtoB with real-time data, making their work more difficult. Various providers had therefore filed a complaint with the EU Competition Commission.

Last summer, members of Allrail such as FromAtoB wrote a letter to Commission Vice-President Margrethe Vestager in which they expressed their fears "that the Covid-19 measures will only help state-owned railroads to further distort the market and irreversibly limit the growth of competitors in the long term." In Germany, the Federal Cartel Office is investigating allegations of market abuse by Deutsche Bahn.