Wow Air will drastically cut its fleet in an effort to
continue flying.
On Dec. 13, the Icelandic carrier said it will reduce its
fleet from 20 to 11 aircraft as part of a restructuring. Wow will no longer fly
its widebody Airbus A330s, planes it uses on flights between Reykjavik and Los
Angeles and San Francisco.
The fleet cut will follow a previous reduction of aircraft
from 24 to 20.
Wow's new flight schedule will take effect after the holiday
season. According to the website Routes, Wow has filed schedule changes that
show it will end Los Angeles service on Jan. 19 and San Francisco service on
March 19. The carrier will also cease its flights to New Delhi on Jan. 19
(those flights began less than two weeks ago). Wow had heavily promoted the New
Delhi service in the months after announcing the route in May.
This fall, Wow also ended or announced plans to end service
to Cleveland, Cincinnati, St. Louis, New York Kennedy and Dallas.
"After a challenging year, Wow Air is now restructuring
and simplifying its operations to return to its roots as a profitable ultralow-cost
airline while discussions with Indigo Partners progress," the company said
in a statement.
Meanwhile, Indigo Partners will invest up to $75 million in
Wow under a share purchase agreement that has yet to be finalized.
Wow issued a
notice to investors on Dec. 14 which gives them until Jan. 20 to decide whether
they support the share purchase. Indigo, a private equity firm specializing in
budget airlines, originally announced its intent to rescue Wow on Nov. 30, but
no dollar figures were revealed. Indigo owns Frontier Airlines and Hungarian
budget airline Wizz Air and is the lead investor in discount carriers Volaris
and JetSmart of Mexico and Chile, respectively.
Wow lost $47.6 million in the first half of 2018.