Ultra low-cost flights to Iceland, Barcelona from South Florida will launch in 2017

 (WOW)

Starting next spring, a new crop of transatlantic flights — to top European and Nordic destinations — will be available for South Floridians at a fraction of the previous cost.

WOW air, Iceland’s low-cost transatlantic airline, announced Thursday it will begin the first-ever nonstop service between Miami International Airport and Reykjavik, Iceland — plus connecting flights to Europe — in April 2017.

Service to Reykjavik’s Keflavík International Airport will be available three times a week from MIA for as low as $99 one-way — about a tenth of the cost of current flights to the Nordic country. The airline will offer connecting flights via Iceland to London, Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin, Frankfurt, Dublin, and Copenhagen from $149 one-way, including taxes.

European routes will also be added at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport beginning next year, in August 2017.

Budget carrier Norwegian Air Shuttle announced Wednesday it will offer twice weekly flights from Fort Lauderdale to Barcelona, Spain’s Barcelona-El Prat Airport from $189 one-way, including taxes. That’s a discount of more than 25 percent over current fares.

The announcements mark another step in the airlines’ expanding North American footprints.

The Miami-Iceland route is the sixth U.S. destination for WOW since it launched North American flights in May 2015. For MIA, the additional service marks the fourth Nordic country and 23rd route to Europe on the airport’s growing roster.

Barcelona is the seventh city with nonstop service to the U.S. that Norwegian has added to its route network since launching in the U.S. three years ago. The airline added one weekly flight to Paris’ Charles De Gaulle Airport from Fort Lauderdale on July 29, in addition to its London, Copenhagen, Oslo and Stockholm routes from FLL.
 

(Chabeli Herrera - Miami Herald)