WOW Air is in a massive financial crisis. They need immediate liquidity to stay afloat. Icelandair and WOW air struck a deal earlier last month, but the deal went south. Reports came in that Indigo Partners would invest in WOW Air, but nothing has materialised so far.
WOW Air had initially closed five destinations in the USA including New York JFK and Dallas. Now, WOW Air is planning to reduce its fleet to 11 aircraft from the current 20. They will also return the sole Airbus A330 in their fleet. Along with this, they plan on reducing their workforce by 50%.
Following this, WOW Air has zeroed out flights to New Delhi, Chicago and Los Angeles later in January.
WOW Air shutting down KEF-LAX, KEF-ORD and KEF-DEL routes
New Delhi-Reykjavik (Last flight on January 20, 2019)
WOW Air shutting down KEF-DEL route from January 20, 2019
Chicago-Reykjavik (Last flight on January 21, 2019)
WOW Air shutting down KEF-ORD route from January 21, 2019
Los Angeles-Reykjavik (Last flight on January 28, 2019)
WOW Air shutting down KEF-LAX route from January 28, 2019
WOW Air had returned 2 of its 3 Airbus A330-300 last month. Due to this and the launch of New Delhi-Reykjavik route, the Los Angeles-Reykjavik route is currently operated by an Airbus A321. Since an Airbus A321 doesn’t have the range to operate this route nonstop, there is a technical stop at Edmonton. This sort of beats the purpose of the route. And with the last Airbus A330 also going back to the lessor, New Delhi-Reykjavik route is going to be shut down as well.
Bottomline
WOW Air had launched New Delhi-Reykjavik route with much fanfare. Now, WOW is dropping the New Delhi-Reykjavik route a couple of months after starting it due to their current financial situation. WOW Air will drop Los Angeles and Chicago route also in a bid to turnaround operations. No more $199 one-way fares without any extras and Butter chicken on New Delhi-Reykjavik route from January 20, 2019.
Will WOW Air successfully turnaround and rise again?
Well that was fast! Frankly i am not surprised given that the fares between India and us are relatively low that there is really no scope to disrupt the market.
Any idea @Ajay to what would happen to tickets booked of February etc ?
Generally how does airline manages such cases?
@Nihit, they may issue you a full refund I guess. But not really sure if they would put you on another carrier.
Any update: are they offering full return or booking you on some other carrier.
As of the now the airline hasn’t officially cancelled. I called up and he said ‘ you are good to fly ‘ .
Hope they do it asap.
Same here.
But now the economy class tickets are priced at upward of 1 lac for the dates I am travelling on. So chances of booking us on other carrier in case they axes this route are next to nil.
Called today again , they say there is no cancellation and that we are changing the schedule etc so it doesn’t show any flights on system. Hope they send the cancellation notification soon and do the needful.
That is a shame. WOW Air is likely to follow Primera to the grave. Too much expansion too soon. On the other hand, lookk at Norwegian. It may not be making money, but it has a solid expansion strategy. Too bad it won’t enter India.