Iceland’s WOW Air boosts US services

Icelandic low-cost carrier (LCC) WOW Air is boosting capacity from Reykjavik to the US by increasing frequencies and taking delivery of five additional aircraft, including its first Airbus A321neo.

“We are adding our first Airbus A320neo in April; in May we will take delivery of the first A321neo. Also in May and June, three more brand-new A321s will join our fleet,” WOW Air VP-communications Svana Friðriksdóttir told ATW in Berlin.

For the summer 2017 schedule, WOW Air will operate a total of three Airbus A330-300s, 10 A321s, one A321neo, one A320neo and two A320s.

“We are also increasing frequencies on many routes to Europe, such as year-round daily services to Frankfurt. Both San Francisco and Los Angeles will become daily services. Flights to London Gatwick, Paris and Amsterdam become double daily,” she said.

The LCC also plans to add also three new destinations this year, including Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania), Cork (Ireland) and Brussels.

The airline, which started operations in May 2012, flies to 31 destinations, including nine airports in the US and Canada. Forty-five percent of all WOW Air passengers transfer in Keflavik between the US and Europe.

The carrier launched its first flight to the US in 2015.

“The majority of our passengers are US citizens,” Friðriksdóttir said. “For 2016, our overall load factors reached 88% and WOW Air transported 1.7 million passengers. We estimate 3.1 million passengers in 2017.”

The LCC also plans to further extend its network to Asia as tourism numbers from the Far East increase in Iceland.

“We will add more aircraft in the future and are also evaluating flights to Asia,” she said, declining to give details. But, she added: “We are also looking to another destination in the US.”

On its A330-300, WOW Air has installed 20 business-class seats, which include a foot rest and a 38- to 40-in. seat pitch.

For the summer 2017, WOW Air operates 43X-weekly US services to Boston, Baltimore, New York Newark, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Pittsburgh and Miami. The LCC also offers daily service from Keflavik to Montreal and Toronto.

(Kurt Hofmann - ATWOnline News)