WOW Air, known for $99 Europe fares, has new U.S. hub
WOW Air, the Icelandic discounter known for its $99 one-way fares to Europe, announced Pittsburgh as its latest U.S. destination.
WOW said Monday morning that it will begin flying from Pittsburgh on June 16, operating four weekly flights to its hub near Reykjavik. WOW offers connections via Reykjavik to nearly two dozen European destinations, including Amsterdam, Berlin, London, Milan and Paris.
"Pittsburgh is certainly a destination on the rise and one that will appeal to a wide range of European travelers looking to discover somewhere different, so we’re thrilled to add the destination to our route list," WOW founder and CEO Skúli Mogensen said in a statement.
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WOW Air offers $99 fares to Europe; What's the catch?
As it typically does when announcing new cities, WOW rolled out sale fares of $99 one-way to Iceland ($129 one-way on the return) and $149 to connecting destinations elsewhere in Europe. A quick search of the carrier's website on Monday morning showed the $99 fares were available, though the availability of those fares was somewhat limited.
And while WOW's base fares are often sold at rock-bottom prices, customers should know they'll pay a fee for nearly everything beyond a guaranteed seat somewhere on the plane. Part of a new breed of "ultra low cost carriers" that are expanding both in the USA and around the world, WOW charges a fee for everything from seat assignments to carry-on bags.
WOW will use 220-seat Airbus A321 narrowbody jets on the route. WOW flies those aircraft on several of its other nonstop routes from Iceland to the U.S. East Coast, including Baltimore/Washington and Boston
The announcement highlights WOW’s continued rapid expansion in North America; the airline has now announced service to seven U.S. airports and two in Canada.
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It’s also a shot in the arm for Pittsburgh International Airport. It once was one of the USA’s busiest airports, operating as a global connecting hub for US Airways. But Pittsburgh has been struggling to rebuild its flight schedule following US Airways’ decision to dismantle its Pittsburgh hub in the mid-2000s. By 2010, hundreds of flights had been dropped from Pittsburgh’s overall flight schedule. The city also lost most of the prestigious trans-Atlantic routes that once operated from there.
Pittsburgh managed to secure one route to Europe, but Delta’s nonstop flights to Paris have operated only seasonally during the past nine years.
Now, WOW Air will give Pittsburgh its first year-round transatlantic service since 2010.
“This will mark the 64th nonstop destination served from Pittsburgh International Airport, up from 37 destinations just two years ago, part of a 70% increase,” the airport added a statement ahead of Monday’s official announcement.
The Iceland flights also represent a tangible step by new Pittsburgh airport chief Christina Cassotis to lure new routes, both foreign and domestic.
“We won," she said to the Pittsburgh ost-Gazette about WOW Air's decision to come to western Pennsylvania. "It’s not like they only looked at us. They picked us."
Still, the newspaper reports that "to get WOW, the airport authority is offering the airline two years’ worth of monetary incentives as well as the usual marketing support and waiver of landing fees. Ms. Cassotis declined to divulge how much money is being paid, saying the agreement had yet to be signed."
Such incentives, which can include revenue guarantees or other similar measures, are not uncommon for airports courting new routes. Cassotis said it was a chance for Pittsburgh to prove that the local market can support another trans-Atlantic route.
“We believe it is an investment that will pay off,” she said to the Post-Gazette.
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