WOW Air's inaugural flight to Baltimore/Washington International Airport gets a water-cannon salute on May 8, 2015. (Photo: WOW Air)
The Icelandic discount carrier known for its $99 fares to Europe is coming to the USA’s biggest city.
WOW Air will begin flying from Newark Liberty International Airport on Nov. 25, offering daily nonstop service to its hub in Iceland. Connecting service is offered to 21 other European destinations.
“We’ve been working towards direct flights to New York for quite some time, so I’m thrilled to now be able to offer infamous $99 fares to Iceland from New York,” Skúli Mogensen, WOW’s founder and CEO, says in an interview with Today in the Sky.
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Indeed, the airline's $99 one-way fares were available Wednesday morning for flights between Newark and WOW’s hub near the Icelandic capital of Reykjavik. Fares to cities like London, Dublin, Berlin, Amsterdam and Frankfurt were available for as low as $149 each way. That puts the United Kingdom, Ireland and mainland Europe within reach of New Yorkers for less than $300 round-trip, though the cheapest fares are capacity controlled and are not offered every day of the week.
"To be able to fly to Iceland for $99 is going to grab a lot of attention," Mogensen predicts. "Given the reaction in other markets, I’m sure that we will have great interest in those fares."
News of WOW’s Newark route comes just weeks after WOW expanded to the U.S. West Coast, launching nonstop service to Iceland from both Los Angeles and San Francisco. WOW also flies from Baltimore/Washington and Boston in the USA and from Toronto and Montreal in Canada.
WOW’s new route also is a boost for Newark Liberty International, which now welcomes its second new “ultra low-cost carrier” in as many days.
It was just Tuesday that fast-growing U.S. leisure carrier Allegiant Air said it would begin flying from Newark in November, adding nonstop routes to Asheville, N.C.; Cincinnati; Knoxville, Tenn.; and Savannah, Ga.
Newark Liberty is one of the three big New York City-area airports, but access for “new entrant” carriers has been virtually impossible in recent years. That changed in April after the Federal Aviation Administration announced it would ease “slot” restrictions at Newark for flights after Oct. 30.
That set the stage for both Allegiant and WOW to expand to the airport.
WOW will fly its Newark-Iceland route mostly with new Airbus A321 narrobody jets, though Mogensen tells Today in the Sky the carrier will use Airbus A330 widebodies during periods of peak demand.
Mogensen says he expects about half the passengers on the Newark route to continue on to other destinations in Europe. But he said not to discount the half who choose to make Iceland their destination.
“Iceland has become a very hot destination in the last few years, and it only seems to be growing,” Mogensen says. “I think the underlying interest is we have a very unique country. You can feel the proximity of nature, the power of the elements. And I’d like to think we are a decent people as well.”
As for North America, Mogensen says WOW is not done expanding yet.
“We grew capacity this year overall by 127%. I do anticipate to continue to grow rapidly, especially in the North American market,” Mogensen says. “We see great opportunities there, both in terms of new destinations as well as more frequency to current destinations.”
“You will see more announcements later this year,” he adds. “But the first inaugural flight for those destinations probably will not be until next year.”
For now, Mogensen says adding New York “is a major milestone for us."
"But I think we’re still teeny tiny in the big scheme of things,” he says. “So, as far as I’m concerned, we’re just getting started.”
By Ben Mutzabaugh
Source: USA Today
