Voyages Emile Weber donates 8 buses to Ukraine

Luxembourg, 16 December 2022

In the presence of François Bausch, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Mobility, and Anne Calteux, representative of the European Commission in Luxembourg, Voyages Emile Weber announced the donation of eight school transport buses to Ukraine. This action, which has been carried out with the logistical support of the Ministry of Mobility and the European Commission, is a response to a request from Olena Zelensky, the First Lady of Ukraine.

After Russia's attack on Ukraine, numerous means of transport were mobilised to ensure the transportation of army troops as well as the evacuation of civilians in the war zones. In order to provide school transport for thousands of students, Ukraine identified a need for 3,000 buses. This need was substantiated by a request forwarded by Olena Zelensky, the First Lady of Ukraine, as part of her international commitment to Ukrainian education at an informal meeting of European transport ministers in April 2022.

The Luxembourg Ministry of Mobility forwarded this request to the Fédération Luxembourgeoise des Exploitants d'Autobus et d'Autocars (FLEAA) and Voyages Emile Weber responded to this tender by offering eight buses. The transfer of the vehicles is scheduled for the week of 19 December 2022 and will be carried out with the support of the European Civil Protection Mechanism.

The 8 buses of the types "Irisbus Arway" and "MAN Lion's Regio" have a capacity of 50 to 70 seats. After taking over regional public transport in Luxembourg and school transport for some municipalities, the 8 buses will now find a new task in the Ukrainian regions of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia and Dnipropetrovsk.

The donation of these 8 buses is a continuation of numerous initiatives carried out by Voyages Emile Weber since the beginning of the conflict at the end of February 2022. Specifically, 8 coaches were provided by the company to transport refugees to host families or to the emergency facilities set up at the time - an initiative that came from volunteer drivers within the company: