Wow Air abruptly ceased operations and cancelled all its flights this week after rescue talks with investors broke down. Routesonline looks at the Icelandic low-cost carrier’s network prior to its failure.
This week: WOW to open third route to Canada as it cuts US destinations; Delta Air Lines plans new Scotland route; and British Airways to provide Charleston's first transatlantic link.
WOW air is adding India to its route network later this year as the low-cost carrier seeks to use Iceland as a connecting hub for traffic between Asia and North America. Routesonline looks at the rapid growth of the airline and why India is a focus for expansion.
Icelandair's Einar Pall Tomasson explains how the airline is responding to aggressive transatlantic competition from the likes of Norwegian and WOW as it seeks to grow its market share.
Icelandair has announced the increase of its seasonal service between Vancouver International Airport and Keflavik International Airport to year-round, following discussions at last month’s Routes Europe forum in Belfast.
Having lived in the shadow of Icelandair’s effective European and North American network strategy since it launched services in 2012, WOW air has now exploded into the low-cost transatlantic market with a network that covers almost 30 destinations in Europe and North America. And having grown capacity by over 90 per cent in 2016, it expects to continue its rapid rise as the low-cost long-haul model continues to stimulate traffic across the Atlantic.
The new Belfast City route will commence from June 1, 2017 and will be operated using a 72-seat Bombardier Dash 8-Q400 turboprop. It will operate from Keflavik International Airport in Iceland, providing extensive connection options to the Transatlantic network of Icelandair from the mid-Atlantic island as well as support growing business and leisure flows into Iceland which is becoming an increasingly popular leisure destination.
New flights from WOW air and Condor will boost connectivity between Europe and Pittsburgh next summer adding to Delta Air Lines seasonal flight to Paris which has operated each summer since 2009. The flights to Reykjavik and Frankfurt will commence in June 2017 and will allow Pittsburgh International Airport to continue its recent international growth.
Icelandair will launch a new route to Philadelphia on May 30, 2017, initially as a summer-only route through to September 20, 2017, although it is planned to grow to a year-round operation. The twice weekly Tampa service, adding to an existing Florida link into Orlando, will launch from September 7, 2017, growing the airline’s Florida offer to a daily rotation.
Icelandair introduced the Boeing 767 back into its passenger service last month, around ten years since the carrier last utilised the type on its scheduled route from its hub at Keflavik International Airport. It is using the aircraft into major European markets such as Amsterdam and London as well as to Boston, Chicago and New York in North America.
The year round, four times weekly service to Aberdeen is Icelandair’s second gateway in Scotland, and sixth in the UK. The new route was announced after the city successfully hosted last year's Routes Europe.
The new routes will commence from the start of the summer schedules in late March 2016 with the introduction of twice weekly flights to both John Lennon Airport in Liverpool and Keflavik International Airport, serving Reykjavik from March 27, 2016 and a weekly flight to Ibiza from June 18, 2016 to September 17, 2016.
The low-fare carrier will introduce a three times weekly link between Bristol and its Keflavik International Airport hub from May 13, 2016 using an A320. This flight will connect via a short stopover in Reykjavik to the carrier’s long-haul flights to Baltimore, Boston and new routes starting in 2016 to Los Angeles and San Francisco in the United States and Montreal and Toronto in Canada.
The airline became a pioneer of ultra-low-cost travel between Europe and North America when it debuted its flights into the US market earlier this year and will replicate this in Canada with its new flights to Montreal and Toronto from May 2016. This latest growth is described by the carrier’s chief executive officer, Skúli Mogensen as a “game changer for WOW air” as it seeks to cement itself as the “industry leader” in the ultra-low-cost long haul category.
Although not formally advertised by the airline as yet, the proposed four times weekly flights between Keflavik International Airport, serving the Icelandic capital Reykjavik, and both Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport in Montreal and Lester B Pearson International Airport in Toronto are displayed in its website booking engine. This displays four times weekly links on each route launching from May 12, 2016 for Montreal and May 20, 2016 for Toronto.
The new route will be operated by the group’s Air Iceland subsidiary and will run four-times-weekly on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, operated by Bombardier Q400 aircraft in two-class configuration.
Icelandair will launch new nonstop service between Keflavik International Airport in Reykjavik and Montreal’s Pierre Trudeau International Airport on 19 May, 2016.
