WOW air has sold its flight times at Gatwick airport in the UK, RÚV reports. The purchase price of the flight times and their buyer remain confidential at this time.
The sale means that as of March 31, 2019, the discount airline’s UK destinations will be reduced to one – Stansted airport, also in the London area – as it recently also discontinued flights to Edinburgh in early October 2018. Around the same time, flights to four US destinations – San Francisco, St. Louis, Cleveland, and Cincinnati – were eliminated as well. The latter three destinations had only been in service for about five months at the time of their cancellation.
In its announcement, WOW simply chalked up the necessity of cancelling flights to Gatwick to a streamlining of operations. The airline’s financial woes have been much-reported of late, and led the company to lay off 111 employees at the beginning of December. WOW air is also set to reduce their fleet by almost 50%, from 20 to 11 planes. The company will retain only Airbus A321 and A320 jets, suitable for short- and medium-range flights, and will cut New Delhi and Los Angeles from their itinerary on January 20 and January 14, respectively.
US-based firm Indigo Partners recently invested ISK 9.4 billion ($75.88m/€67.23m) in WOW air, and is set to acquire shares in the company as well. WOW air’s CEO and founder Skúli Mogensen recently explained that going forward, the company’s operational model will be adjusted so as to conform to that of the super-low-fare airlines that Indigo Partners normally works with.
