WOW Air is the Icelandic ultra low cost carrier that has been growing like crazy the past few years. They first launched flights to the US in March 2015, with a flight between Boston and Keflavik, and since then they added service to over a dozen US destinations. Unfortunately the airline has been losing money…
Continue reading: WOW Air Launching Flights To Vancouver
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
This route makes a lot more sense than the ones to the US MIdwest that they cancelled. A lot more potential premium traffic.
WW245 Reykjavik to Vancouver departing 5:20PM arriving 6:15PM
I think you mean AM?
@ Riley Peick -- Nope, there's a significant time change, so it only lands 55 minutes after it departs.
YVR is more of a "hipster"/premium market that would want to visit Iceland. Much more than St-Louis and Cleveland, for instance.
I'm actually a bit surprised that they've chosen to fly directly into YVR, rather than using BLI as the alternative (as a lot of other airlines have chosen to do).
I am surprised that WOW is willing to go toe to toe with FI at YVR (and to a lesser extent SEA). While WOW doesn't bank at KEF the way that FI does, a 10:30AM arrival does mean you miss some connection options. I doubt this lasts past summer 2019.
I don't think Wow Air will die, because it seems very dynamic and fast to respond to market pressures.
Wow was smart to take some big subsidies from the desperate "rust belt" cities -- I feel bad for them losing Wow, but they should have never offered subsidies in the first place -- and now it will move service to a world-class cosmopolitan city, a city with lots of demand for European travel from Canadians and, just as important, a city where Europeans will want to travel.
@Anthony
The only rust belt city that I feel slightly bad for losing WOW is STL. At least CVG has DL to CDG and CLE has FI to KEF. STL is left with nothing. What makes it worse is that BA has been taunting STL for a 787 LHR flight since day 1, but AUS, BNA, MSY, PIT and CHS already and STL hasn’t.
Now STL is demanding WOW to pay back the subsidies and landing fees.
Lucky- if I have a lead or news to give you , is there a private email address to send it to ? You have my registered email , can you let me know ? Thanks
This is just a last ditch attempt to cover up how dire the situation is at Wow. I was never keen on the idea of connecting in Iceland in the first place but the idea of 3544 miles in a configuration I can't fit in (6'10" go figure) is hell to me. Still this seems to try to make us believe that everything's fine when clearly the clock is ticking for Wow.
@Anthony There was an article in a local newspaper from one of the rust belt cities -- I think it was STL or CLE -- and WOW won't be getting any of the promised subsidies since they didn't meet targets that were put in place (I'm guessing based on pax numbers).
Noah - It's rather absurd to claim Wow launched a route to Vancouver to trick a bunch of blog readers (the only ones who would notice, other than those wanting to fly to/from YVR of course) that they're doing OK...
Seems like they are sick of Americans in Iceland... they thought they had gotten rid of the IDF since 2006 😉