[UPDATE: I’ve issued a correction to this post here]

h/t: View from the Wing

WOW Air has been having a rough go at it lately.  They expanded super aggressively into the USA in the past year and unfortunately it appears they expanded too quickly.

WOW Air announced the cancellation of flights to five destinations from Reykjavik, effective October 26:

• Cleveland
• Cincinnati
• New York JFK
• St Louis
• and……..DFW

As I wrote earlier this year, DFW went from having zero nonstops to Reykjavik to having three.  It just wasn’t sustainable, although honestly I thought American would pull out of the market first and let Icelandair and WOW have it.

Here’s the reality

Flying across the Atlantic is expensive.  At a certain point you need to be able to command a premium for certain seats and even the WOW XXL seats weren’t commanding the type of fares that would be sustainable.

WOW’s cancellations come shortly after another low-cost carrier, Primera Air, announced a sudden cessation of operations earlier this week.  The low-cost carrier market is attractive for leisure travelers, sure, but they need to find the right routes and probably tie into some sort of alliance in order to have a chance for survival.  Norwegian Air seems to be successful but there have long been rumors they’re running short on cash.

I enjoyed meeting WOW Air’s staff when I was taking these pictures on the ramp at DFW and it’s sad to see them leave DFW.  More competition is always better than less, especially with airlines.  Hopefully they can re-math some things and at least return seasonally at some point to not only DFW but the other affected airports.