The Icelandic low cost carrier WOW Air, famous for offering one-way flights between Europe and North America (with a stop at Iceland’s Keflavik Airport) for prices starting as low as US $99, is about to drop five US destinations from its network.
Affected are the three Midwestern cities St. Louis, Cincinnati and Cleveland. The latter two routes are due to end this month, while St. Louis will remain part of WOW’s network until January 7th, next year.
WOW Air blames the suspension of these three US connections on lack of profit and “load factors not achieving the targets that were set“, but refuses to give any data on load-factors for the routes in question.
The airline currently operates four weekly Airbus A321 flights to all three destinations. It is the only carrier flying between Iceland and Cincinnati & St. Louis, while Cleveland is also served by competitor Icelandair four times a week using a Boeing 737 MAX.
Both routes are currently operated by three airlines each. WOW Air and Icelandair, as well as American Airlines on DFW-KEF and Delta Air Lines on JFK-KEF
Meanwhile, WOW Air is set to launch a new route from Reykjavik to Delhi on December 7th, which will be the first non-stop connection between Iceland and India.
WOW’s all-Airbus fleet consists of 20 aircraft, including three A330-300 wide body aircraft. The airline is due to receive its first of four Airbus A330-900neo later this year, making it one of the first operators of this new aircraft type.
Read more: WOW Air announces new Canadian destination
Jakob Wert is an aviation journalist from Germany. He built up the website IFN.news and is the Editor-In-Chief of International Flight Network.
