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The inaugural flight of WOW Air to the Baltimore / Washington International Airport receives a salute to the water cannons on May 8, 2015. (Photo: WOW Air)
The aggressive expansion of WOW Air in the heart of the United States has been turbulent.
The low-cost Icelandic airline, known for its one-way fares from the US to Iceland and Europe from US $ 99, announces the removal of its flights to three cities in the US Midwest.
WOW flights from St. Louis will end on January 7, while seasonal flights from Cincinnati and Cleveland will not resume next summer. The latest flights from Ohio cities will take place later this month.
The withdrawal comes about five months after the start of flights between WOW and the cities. The Midwest's three cities – as well as Detroit – have been announced by WOW as a hot new destination last summer.
Detroit will remain in the WOW Air network, Svana Friðriksdóttir told USA TODAY's Today in the Sky blog. But it seems that the three abandoned Midwest cities could point to bigger changes for the US WOW network.
Asked specifically about WOW flights to New York, JFK and Dallas / Fort Worth, two destinations on which speculation was made about WOW's long-term outlook, Friðriksdóttir said no decision had been made. been taken as to whether the airline would continue to fly in that city in 2019.
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Regarding St. Louis, WOW stated that the demand for the service did not meet its expectations.
"Unfortunately, it must be said that St Louis was a disappointment for WOW Air this summer in terms of the end results, as load factors did not reach the targets initially set for the link and compared to other markets in our network. , Said Friðriksdóttir.
This seemed to surprise the officials of the Saint-Louis airport.
"We are disappointed with the strong response from customers in the St. Louis area, we were told that we were one of the company's top performing markets in the Midwest, added last spring," said the airport in a statement to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
The loss will carry the only regular non-stop route from St. Louis to Europe. Prior to the arrival of WOW, St. Louis was no longer served by Europe non-stop since 2003, when American had interrupted his last flight to London because he had cut the TWA hub she had inherited during the acquisition of the now vanished carrier.
In Cleveland, WOW's decision not to resume only returns a month after its declaration Cleveland Plain-Dealer that he planned to return in 2019.
More generally, the withdrawal of WOW is a disappointing development for cities losing their flights.
When WOW announced its expansion into the Midwest last summer, it was the first time that a European discount airline had targeted the UK so aggressively. Previously, the US service on other European discounters had focused mainly on major US coastal cities where the demand for transatlantic flights was already well established.
By the time the routes were revealed, WOW said it would expect smaller Midwestern cities to thrive with single-aisle Airbus A321 jets, smaller than the larger-body widebody planes on US-European routes.
"We love the region. We think there is an opportunity here. We think it's under-serviced, "said WOW Air founder and CEO Skúli Mogensen at USA TODAY's Today in the Sky blog.
He predicted that low fares, combined with smaller jets, could generate profits by meeting the accumulated demand for cheap transatlantic flights.
"With this type of price, we have seen in other markets that we have strongly stimulated the market," he said.
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