Iceland’s ultra-low-cost carrier; WOW Air is to begin flying to the US West Coast in summer 2016 with Los Angeles and San Francisco confirmed as their fifth and sixth destinations in North America. The carrier will fly both LA and San Francisco by three new Airbus A330-300 aircraft, the first wide-body planes in the WOW air fleet, which will each carry 340 passengers in a single-class configuration.
The routes will connect with daily flights to Keflavik from London Gatwick (and other WOW air destinations in Europe), allowing Brits to travel with the airline to Los Angeles four times per week and San Francisco five times a week, all year round.
WOW air’s expansion to California follows the successful launch of transatlantic services from London Gatwick to Boston and Washington DC in early 2015 and the announcement that the airline would begin flying to Montreal and Toronto in May 2016, all via Iceland and with fares as low as £99. The existing US services now operate year round and maintain consistent carrier loads of 90% plus. WOW air’s entry to the market has already brought prices down industry-wide by 30% between Boston and Iceland and by 14% on flights between Boston and the UK.
Launched in November 2011, WOW air now connects twenty destinations across the US and Europe with the Icelandic capital. WOW air’s annual passenger capacity will more than double in 2016 to over 1.8 million, up from approximately 840,000 in 2015.
WOW air’s A330-300 aircraft will host a single-class configuration with a capacity of 340 passengers. Seat pitch will vary from 30 inches as standard to 34 inches at an additional charge.
