WOW Air

**WOW air** was an Icelandic low-cost carrier operating services between Iceland, Europe and North America. The airline is headquartered in Reykjavík and based at Keflavík International Airport. it ceased operations on March 28th of 2019.

## History

Founded in November 2011 and operated its inaugural flight in 2012. WOW air was founded by entrepreneur Skúli Mogensen, whose extensive business background is largely in technology and telecoms in Iceland, Europe, and North America. The sole owner of WOW air is Titan, an investment company owned by Mogensen, who is the company CEO and sits on the five-person board of directors.

The airline carried over 400,000 passengers in 2013 and reached its one millionth guest in December 2014, and later started expanding it's services into North America, then Canada starting in May 2016. Flights to Los Angeles and San Francisco began in June 2016 using two Airbus A330-300 planes leased from Air Europa. it later doubled passenger capacity in 2016 to over 1.6 million, from approximately 740,000.

## Cancelled Acquisition from Iceland Air

On 5 November 2018, it was announced that rival Icelandair would acquire the entire share capital of WOW air, subject to shareholder approval; the two airlines would continue to operate under separate brands. Together, Icelandair and WOW air have a share of around 3.8% of the transatlantic market.On 27 November 2018, WOW air announced that it had returned four aircraft to their lessors as a sale-and-lease-back offer fell through and the financial situation worsened due to stricter demands by suppliers and contractors.[17][18] The four returned aircraft (two Airbus A320s and two A330s) are owned by the same company that was supposed to deliver four Airbus A330neos to WOW air. On 29 November, Icelandair cancelled its takeover plans as the "pre-conditions" of the shareholder.

## Bankruptcy and Final Flight

On 28 March 2019, Wow Air announced that it was ceasing operations. All flights were cancelled and thousands of stranded passengers were advised to book flights with other airlines. Due to the market share of Wow Air on the Icelandic air travel market, the airline's bankruptcy caused some disruption in the travel plans of multiple expected visitors. The loss of flights harmed Iceland's tourism and fishing-dependent economy and caused an increase in unemployment; the airline previously delivered over one fourth of all visitors to Iceland, and its failure caused tourist visits to drop 16 percent overall and 20 percent from the United States, prompting a decline in vacation home and hotel construction.

WOW Air's final flight was on a A321-200, the final Flight was WW125.

## Former Fleet

WOW Air formerly operated the following Aircraft:

## PLAY Air

In late September 2019, two former WOW air executives, Arnar Már Magnússon and Sveinn Ingi Steinþórsson, announced that WOW Air would return to operations in October 2019 under a brand new name "PLAY Air" Originally planned for one flight from Washington D.C to Iceland on a daily basis. in July 2021 the airline started operations using a Airbus A321neo from Iceland to London Heathrow. Starting in 2022 Play Air will start operations on the East Coast of the United States.