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Just when I thought I’d had my fill of bankrupt airline stories, similar to my current fill of stories about chicken sandwiches in Europe (sorry, not sorry), some old WOW execs are taking another run in the market.
What’s left of WOW is going in two very different directions between its former assets and former executives.
Just four months after WOW went under, the company’s former “dream team” announced plans to relaunch, possibly as WAB (We Are Back).
On Tuesday, the group announced their new airline, PLAY. (These guys love their branding in all caps.) The company’s planes will be bright red instead of fuschia.
Photo: PLAY
PLAY is scheduled to start selling tickets this month, with two planes flying from Iceland to Europe. As the fleet grows, it wants to start flying to the U.S. and back by the spring of next year.
Right now the airline is in its hiring phase, which is good news to the hundreds of WOW employees who were laid off. It’s also good news for Iceland’s tourism, which was predicted to take a 16 percent hit after WOW went under.
PLAY is also giving away 1,000 free tickets. Customers can sign up by going to their website and submitting an email address. The site doesn’t say if the tickets are a one-way or round trip. It’s also not clear if these will be in the form of vouchers or specific trips.
Flyers will no doubt be leary of PLAY. WOW went under for a number of reasons. It grew too big too quickly in an oversaturated market. Combined with high operating costs, especially with fuel and the growing amount of passenger compensation owed through the EU’s passenger bill of rights, WOW ran out of credit and money.
Customers will likely have concern WOW’s former Vice President of Operations, Arnar Már Magnússon is PLAY’s CEO. He’s joined by WOW’s former Director of Financial Planning and Analysis. These are two people who were responsible for the operations and finances of an airline that abruptly went under. However, two very seasoned professionals in the airline industry join the WOW duo on PLAY’S executive team.
I know what you’re thinking. Didn’t you just tell us about WOW air relaunching with flights from Washington D.C.? Yes. That version of WOW Air is the company’s assets.
USAerospace acquired WOW’s assets with plans to launch flights between Washington Dulles International and Rekyavek in October, keeping the company’s name and the fuchsia planes.
This version of WOW planned to somehow keep fares low while offering fancy meals and lounges. The airline’s chief exec, Michelle Ballarin, didn’t say exactly how the company would pull this off. October’s launch date was shoved to December, which was scrapped altogether.
Recently, the airline said it was going to focus on cargo first, trading fish for people. Literally. Their cargo will primarily be seafood. The airline wants to offer passenger flights to Europe in the future.
Time will tell if either of these airline companies will survive, though PLAY looks to have more of a game plan than USAerospace.
