Seems that cheaper isn’t always better…as just this week budget transatlantic carrier WOW! Air went bust.
‘Tis unfortunate for travelers who have already booked, as the company aren’t offering refunds and are suggesting to contact other airlines as soon as possible. It says passengers covered by various protected booking methods, including booking by credit card or through a European travel agent, should try to get their money back from them. Some of the other similar airlines are offering up to 25% rescue discount on new flights for the victims of the fall. Check Norwegian, easyjet and Icelandic Air, to name but a few.
Some people who are deeply affected have taken to Twitter with their complaints. News of cancelled weddings and honeymoons, dream holidays and not making it home in time for funerals are among the complaints. One disgruntled non traveler described it as the “Fyre festival of airline travel”, referring to the shambolic Bahamaian island music festival fiasco recently outlined in competing documentaries on Netflix and Hulu
The company released a statement overnight saying they were in the final stages of raising money with a group of investors and that they were postponing all flights until documentation with all parties involved were finalized.
Wow was founded in 2011 by its chief executive, Skuli Mogensen. It started flights in 2012 and grew to employ 1,000 people, carrying 3.5 million passengers last year in its 11 aircraft.
According to the BBC, Aviation expert Chris Tarry, from consultants Ctaira, said Wow was simply not able to make enough profit in a highly competitive market: “Wow faced stiff competition on the northern Europe to North America route, which is being served by rival low-cost operator, Norwegian. Wow offered low fares – but so did the rest of the pack. Even the traditional carriers were offering keen fares.
“Travelling with Wow also involved going via Iceland – attractive if you have the time and money to spare on that, but with others pricing fares keenly, something people were thinking wasn’t worth their time.”
Mr Mogensen wrote a letter to employees on Thursday which said: “I will never be able to forgive myself for not taking action sooner, since it is evident that Wow was an amazing airline and we were on the right track to do great things again.”
He went on “It’s now, unfortunately out of our hands. I’m very sorry about this as these are people who have supported us and it’s amazing how positive our passengers have been from day one and I’m disappointed not to honour our commitments to these people.”
But Wow isn’t the only airline feeling the pinch these days as a number of airlines have run into financial trouble recently, with factors such as higher fuel bills and excess capacity in the sector contributing to their problems.
The UKs “flybe” airline closed along with other European budget carriers and “Ryanair” have reported drastic drops for their first quarter already.
It’s very sad for the employees too, and bad news for travelers as it now means low inventory and less seats traveling back and forth to the UK which will probably mean a hike in the cost of flights.
Hope not too many of you are affected, but if you are stranded stateside, take a look at our website to see if we can help in anyway.
Craig Robert Young
