WOW Air May No Longer Be Reliable, Says Arthur Frommer

For a brief period of optimism, it was recently felt that WOW Air of Iceland would continue to operate its budget-priced flights across the Atlantic to Europe.

A financial angel named Indigo Partners had enabled that cheap carrier to avoid bankruptcy, and numerous bargain-seeking travelers were making their plans accordingly.

That was then.

The low-cost flights fell through, and WOW began cutting its airplane fleet.

First it reduced its available planes from 24 to 20, and then, most recently, it reduced its remaining fleet in half, from 20 to around 10.

Gone were flights from, among others, New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, and WOW Air is no longer a facility for us bargain hunters.

That leaves Level and Norwegian as major sources for cheap flights across the Atlantic.

And it is also uncertain whether Level Airlines—an odd combination of British Airways and Iberian Airlines flying from Paris and Barcelona to the United States—will continue its amazing rates of £350 round-trip across the Atlantic. I for one fail to believe it will.

Which leaves Norwegian, charging a higher £600 round-trip across the Atlantic. The budget-minded traveler will henceforth pay increasing attention to Norwegian’s website.