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Iceland: Enquirer journalists Alexander Coolidge and Liz Dufour take us on a tour of the island country.
Cincinnati Enquirer

Travelers prepare to embark on Keflavik International Airport in Iceland with WOW Airlines for non-stop service to Cincinnati. WOW started serving Iceland by CVG on May 9th. It's a simple airline, so you pay for drinks, food or extra bags. The flight time between Cincinnati and Iceland is about six hours, depending on the direction. (Photo: Liz Dufour /)

First, it was just a break for the winter.

Then – less than six months after WOW air launched in Cincinnati – the cheap, no-frills airline announced that it was doing it for good.

WOW air will not be coming back to Cincinnati / Northern Kentucky International Airport.

It is also canceling its services at the international airports of St. Louis Lambert and Cleveland Hopkins.

"Unfortunately, the routes did not reach the profit targets set," WOW said in a statement.

The start is a blow for CVG, but CEO Candace McGraw said in a statement that the local response to WOW reflected "strong demand for additional international flights from our region."

"Building new non-stop international destinations is a top priority for us," McGraw said. "And we will continue to work with targeted carriers in this effort."

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The Enquirer team sent photographer Liz Dufour and senior business reporter Alex Coolidge on the first WOW Air jet to serve the CVG airport. The flight landed in Reykjavik, Iceland on Wednesday, May 9, 2018. Dufour and Coolidge will spend a total of 82 hours in the northern island country. (Photo: Liz Dufour / Enquirer)

WOW air was launched in Cincinnati on May 10 and offers a limited number of one-way trips to Iceland for $ 99. Mindy Kershner, CVG spokesperson said in September that WOW had "an incredibly successful launch, serving more than 40,000 passengers in recent months."

Kershner then stated that she was expecting WOW to return in the spring. She did not immediately respond Tuesday to questions about the impact of the loss on CVG or whether WOW had a contract with the airport.

Jay Ratliff, a local aviation specialist, thinks that rising fuel costs are what WOW has done with CVG. Jet fuel prices rose more than 39% from a year ago, according to the International Air Transport Association.

"The only thing they can not predict, no airline can, it's the fuel costs ahead," said Ratliff. "It's something that impacts not just WOW, but the entire industry."

Ratliff said the departure of WOW should not be seen as a reflection on CVG or even whether the community wants and would support such a carrier.

People were booking flights, said Ratliff – "I want to thank the community for reacting as they did" – but the fuel costs "made the task very, very difficult".

A Delta A350 encircling CVG Tuesday morning. (Photo: Cincinnati / Northern Kentucky International Airport)

CVG was at one time one of the most expensive airports in the country. But since then, it has become a hub for low-cost airlines, including Frontier Airlines, Allegiant Air and, more recently, Southwest Airlines.

In fact, just an hour before the announcement of WOW's departure on Tuesday, CVG sent out a press release announcing that airport rates were at their lowest. Domestic flights outside the CVG – which would not include WOW travel in Europe – cost an average of $ 314, the lowest in the region.

"With the increase in passenger traffic and competition between airlines, airfares are declining," said McGraw, the CEO, in a statement. "CVG passengers are paying an average of $ 240 less per ticket than four years ago."

WOW, based in Iceland, was founded in 2011 and serves 37 destinations in Europe, North America and Asia, according to the company website.

After its highly celebrated launch at CVG, however, WOW encountered some difficulties.

In June, passengers were angry after a flight from Cincinnati to Iceland was delayed by more than 14 hours due to "unforeseen problems" with paperwork regarding customs and protection borders of the United States.

A few weeks ago, WOW was named the worst airline in the world by Business Insider, the last of 72 airlines based on performance, quality of service and processing of claims.

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