Setra Coaches Offering Exclusive Sense of Space and 1+1 Seating

STUTTGART -- Sept. 17, 2015: The first Setra TopClass 500 coach to have been supplied with 1+1 seating is based in Switzerland. Ernst Marti AG sets new standards for exclusive passenger transport with the S 516 HDH. In its "Executive Business Class" as the travel concept is known, the bus operator from Kallnach near Bern carries a maximum of just 20 passengers in luxurious individual seats. The seats have a swivelling design, meaning that individual discussion groups can be formed and disbanded again at any time with minimal effort. Every touring seat furthermore comes equipped with stowage compartments, drinks holder, and a work station with a 220 volt power socket.

The bus operator Marti worked together with Setra to develop the 1+1 concept many years ago. As managing director Heinrich Marti explains, "Then as now, our aim was to offer unrivalled standards of comfort for both companies and private clients with exacting travel requirements."

The firm Ernst Marti AG was founded in 1903 and today offers an attractive range of tours, which can also be combined with exclusive air trips and cruises. Over the course of a partnership with Setra that dates back more than 60 years, the firm has taken delivery of over 300 touring coaches from Germany. For years now, Ernst Marti AG has been somewhat of a pioneer when it comes to luxurious interior equipment and appointments. For instance, the company also pressed ahead with the idea for a glass roof or staggered individual seating in touring coaches, working in close collaboration with Setra. Heinrich Marti: "As a top-quality tour organiser, it is vital that our travel concepts are also feasible in our coaches. Setra makes it possible for us to implement our innovations to optimum effect."

The Sales-Lentz Group is to operate the first TopClass 500 coach offering passengers an unrivalled sense of space with a 1+1 seating arrangement on the roads of Luxembourg in the form of an S 517 HDH. The 21 Setra Ambassador leather seats come with an array of features, including extra-wide armrests on both sides, tablet PC supports, as well as stowable tables. The premium business-class coach is available as a very special shuttle vehicle for parties such as high-ranking government officials, trade delegations or management and supervisory boards of well-known companies. The staggered arrangement of the swivelling touring seats means that passengers in the S 517 HDH can easily sit together in groups to discuss matters while still en route to conference venues, hotels or airports, or just sit back and relax.

The Sales-Lentz Group, which employs over 1000 people and has its headquarters in Bascharage, is a third-generation family business run by brothers Marc and Jos Sales. The company bought its first coach in 1948. Luxembourg's largest bus operator, which also owns several subsidiaries in Luxembourg and Belgium, has a fleet of over 430 vehicles, including 255 regular-service buses and 73 coaches.

Autobus Oberbayern GmbH in Munich took delivery of a coach designed for highly exclusive excursions in the form of an S 517 HD with exceptionally spacious 1+1 seating. With just 24 seats, the three-axle model from the Setra ComfortClass 500 range offers tourists an unprecedented feeling of travel luxury on their day trips from Munich to the royal castle of Neuschwanstein in the Allgäu region. The usual twin seats have been replaced with one swivelling luxury seat on each side of the aisle that offers plenty of elbow and leg room. Every passenger furthermore has a secure stowage compartment for their phone, keys or purse/wallet, as well as ample space for drinks, snacks and even a laptop.

In future, passengers will also include business people using the coach for premium business-class travel to conference venues, hotels or airports. In this way, the coach will offer a whole new form of business trip combining travel and meetings in extremely comfortable fashion. With this latest acquisition, Nico Schoenecker, managing director of Autobus Oberbayern GmbH, is adding yet another highlight to the fleet of a company that has been combining tourist services with comfort of the highest standard for many years now: "Thanks to the Setra specification that is currently unique in Germany, the 1+1 concept allows us to bring all the comfort of business-class air travel to the road."