WOW Air Announces Huge Midwest Expansion

WOW Air is often half the price when flying from Toronto to Western Europe compared to AC, LH, BA, AF, etc. The free stopover in Iceland makes it even more appealing. Adding up the costs of carry-ons, checked baggage and meals still often makes it significantly cheaper than my usual flying of either AC or LH between YYZ and Europe. I think that these new flights, especially to Cleveland, St. Louis and Cincinnati, will be especially successful given the lack of direct transatlantic flights to these cities. I think it will be much more convenient to connect in KEF, compared to EWR, JFK, ORD, IAD, etc. that people living in those cities probably do now.

I don't understand why nobody ever flies to MSP.
We are much larger than many cities on this list, and airfares are always sky high here.

It's really frustrating when I see awesome fare deals around the globe that are good from almost every city except MSP.

Luckily Iceland Air does come here. Shocking really.

Wondering how the US3 will respond.

@JRMW ...thank delta! You are only experiencing what happens to every other delta hub. ATL is the busiest airport in the world and Delta has a death grip on it. If you fly out of ATL, you WILL be on DL and it's going to cost you an arm and leg. Meanwhile, deals are happening all over the states. And you can't get around it, bc even if I want to fly to cleveland from ATL to hop on WOW, I have to buy an expensive delta flight. Welcome to the monopoly.

I could see these flights making sense from say April-October, primarily as a feeder for Americans in those cities to get to Europe. There are certainly enough people with enough income in those cities to make spring/summer/early fall trips to Europe. But I don't see much reverse traffic, as I can't see many Europeans wanting to vacation in any of those cities/areas. And I doubt there will be a lot of traffic going over to Europe in from November-March, as business travelers who normally fill seats at this time won't be taking Wow. Any thoughts as to these flights being seasonal?

@DCjoe Actually, Detroit is experiencing a huge influx of European tourism, coming for bicycle tours of the decaying areas, followed by craft cocktails and excellent cuisine at on trend, world class restaurants. It happened recently, but is happening fast. Thomas Lents just opened a restaurant, The Apparatus Room, at the hip and just-opened Foundation Hotel. 7 years ago I would not have guessed this rapid shift.

Here's to hoping this lowers DTW transatlantic fares a bit, although I have my doubts that Delta will compete with them. With ten daily nonstops to Europe in peak season, including one AF, they have little need to compete...which is a bummer for those in the area. And they are all routinely sold out.

DFW still waiting.....

Finally St. Louis regains there international service besides Canada, Charter Mexico, and Caribbean cities!

wanderingjos- as a Detroit area native (now economic migrant, as I call myself and friends who moved away), I am glad to hear of some interest in the area. But I am cautious in thinking about numbers of visitors- are you talking about a couple of groups of people a month doing these types of activities, or the 100 people a day it would take to fill up half and airplane? My gut is that the scale of the things you are talking about really isn't there. But I don't have the data to support that.

Wow, this is definitely wow! Excited for all the new Midwest cities!

Wow, KEF was already a zoo with standing room only last August. More flights are going to be a problem next summer.

Interesting because in all of Kentucky (where CVG is located), Ohio and Indiana, there is currently only one direct flight to Europe - Delta's flight from CVG to Paris.

So people in these States will really appreciate not having to travel via ORD.

Just wish that WOW had a premium cabin like Norwegian does

@DCjoe

You are right, I was making an anecdotal and observation-based suggestion, however, the market can certainly fill that aircraft with Detroit-based travelers alone--it won't need huge amounts of European travelers to be successful. Keep in mind/don't forget that DTW pulls from Detroit, Windsor, Flint, Ann Arbor and Toledo--which amounts to more than 6.5 million people. If they market well, so people know they exist, they will do well. (Besides, many people are used to Spirit so this won't be such a change...) I, however, will stick with Delta and I can only hope that it might make for better fares, although I am not convinced of that outcome.

As for the scale of redevelopment in Detroit these days, it is staggering. That notwithstanding, so too is the area still to be redeveloped. But Detroit can certainly hold its own and I suspect it will once again become a major American urban powerhouse: it's affordable, there is plenty to do (and growing) and has good access to freshwater. 😉

@AJR -- Ultimate Air Shuttle just started flying from the ATL region to CLE, albeit through CVG. Their first time flyer promo is pretty reasonable.

Hopefully, this will require Delta to drop its transatlantic airfares out of Michigan. We are screwed in Detroit due to a complete lack of competition on any flights to Europe. It's often $500 cheaper to drive to Toronto or Chicago for an international flight.

GL says:
August 23, 2017 at 9:13 am
Wondering how the US3 will respond.

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Sue, like they always do.

We fly to Iceland every September for an annual business/fishing trip. I crunched the numbers as I had a choice of Icelandair and WOW out of O'Hare. WOW was a few dollars cheaper even when I added the cost of baggage (a lot of fishing equipment), seat assignments, etc. However it wasn't enough of a savings to make me take a chance. We always have nice flights with Icelandair so, for $20 to $30 more per ticket I decided to stick with a known quantity.

Lucky, quick reminder that "North America" also includes Canada and Mexico. WOW also already flies to YYZ and YUL. Love your blog!

@Billy2011, I'm happy for St. Louis, too. Though I no longer live there, I have plenty of family there. When I moved there in 1991, TWA still existed and had daily nonstops to LHR and CDG. Then the effects of its 1988 takeover by Carl Icahn kicked in and TWA went belly up, taking St. Louis passengers with it.

What a joke, by the time you add the carry one they cost the same as AA to get to any decent european destination.

I'm very excited! I live in Cincinnati and feel like there is never new routes around here.

what about Milwaukee? no service at all to Europe. Come on WOW to the Badger State.