Here's what you need to know if you are booked on a Wow Air flight, or if you are ever in a similar situation and your airline goes out of business and leaves you stranded.

As CNN reported, would-be passengers only found out that Wow Air was ceasing operations by searching reports on Reddit and Twitter.Ĭustomers asking for assistance and information from the airline on Twitter have been receiving auto-replies from the Wow Air feed say that 'we apologize for the inconvenience' and instructing them to send direct messages to the airline.īut Wow Air is not likely to help the passengers it has left stranded all over North America and Europe. One person described 'pandemonium at the gate' late last night at Newark airport as Wow Air gave passengers a $12 voucher and said only that their flight had been cancelled.Īpparently, Wow Air passengers awaiting flights were not informed the airline was going out of business entirely. Several other budget European airlines, including Germania, flybmi, and Cobalt Air, have also ceased operations recently.īefore cancelling all of its flights, Wow Air flew from a half-dozen North American airports, including Detroit, Newark, and Baltimore-Washington (BWI), to Reykjavik, Iceland, and onward to major cities throughout Europe such as London, Paris, Barcelona, Dublin, and Milan.Ĭhaos and confusion ruled at airports when passengers found themselves stranded by Wow Air flight cancellations. and London last summer, went bust last fall.

Primera Air, a Scandinavian airline that added flights between the U.S. Unfortunately, it's become fairly common to see airlines go out of business lately. The upstart carrier then laid off over 100 workers at the end of 2018, and managed to survive less than three months into 2019. Last fall, talks broke down for Icelandair to acquire Wow Air.

Between July 2017 and July 2018, Wow Air reported losses of about $43 million. Wow Air, which is based in Iceland and became popular with budget travelers for offering insanely cheap flights to Europe ( $55 one way!), grew rapidly since its founding in 2011 but has struggled with debt for months. In a travel alert, Wow Air said that customers with unused tickets can seek refunds if they purchased with a credit card, and that stranded passengers should try to book seats with other airlines, which 'may offer flights at a reduced rate, so-called rescue fares, in light of the circumstances.' Wow Air, the discount airline that helped upend the transatlantic flight market with airfare under $100 to Europe, just ceased operation and cancelled all flights.

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