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It’s been a while since I’ve written an article about a chicken sandwich controversy or a bankrupt airline, so I figured something was coming down the pike soon. Enter my favorite fuschia airline: WOW.
WOW, the once bankrupt Icelandic airline, now owned by an American company, caused quite a stir this week when the company updated its Facebook page with a cryptic comeback post.
The irony of the first sentence, “Everyone loved WOW air,” shouldn’t be lost on anyone, as the bankrupt airline left thousands stranded last year and there are roughly a dozen Facebook pages dedicated to people’s negative experiences on the airline.
However, it should be noted WOW didn’t leave a sour taste in everyone’s mouth. The post was flooded with comments from people excited about the airline’s commercial return, many saying they had nothing but great experiences.
The post comes on the heels of a very bizarre move to open a WOW Air and Cafe in Washington, D.C. The shop currently is covered with their logos and a “landing soon” sign. WOW hasn’t addressed what this place will be but I suppose it will be a place where you can buy tickets and coffee.
Simply Flying is pegging WOW Air to start flying commercially in mid-March from Washington D.C. to Iceland and back. The airline would be based in Washington but have mostly Icelandic employees.
The new WOW Air has a lot to contend with if and when it relaunches. It’s keeping the logo, name and coloring of an airline that went bankrupt, left people stranded, was once accused of price gouging return fares, had abysmal punctuality which lead to a 100-million euro flight disruption compensation bill, which was its final undoing.
While European air travel is a saturated market, those in the United States don’t have too many budget airline options to get to Europe. A new airline, even if it is the new WOW, offering to fly Americans to Europe for under $300 roundtrip would no doubt be a valuable market to tap into. It will be interesting to see if the fuschia planes get off the ground this spring.
