WOW Air

[big g]

Just to add to the A330-300 debate, the BH flights are sold at 320 loads hence the light pax load for the 330 every week, it was planned for the 320 but swapped the night before to the 330.

As TLY has said the A330-300 can do Florida non stop from BRS, when FC operated the 767-300 it never went even close to MTOW allways had a good 35.0kg remaining, a 767-300 hold payload is around 41.0kg, any other airport and that would be taken up with cargo, that BRS does not handle.

With BRS now catogorised a code E airport it can handle all widebody aircraft bar the A380.

Back to WOW, I'm glad they have stuck around, great crews to work with.

 

[Foxlimayankee]

WOW will never operate the A330 into Bristol. They are struggling with A321 it seems as the A320 was the regular visitor. The A330 is currently used on busy Europe routes like CDG and LGW, sometimes AMS, but will be mainly utilised on West Coast America and MIA for the summer. I don't think the plan is any A330 Ops to Europe this summer. The late announcement was down to lack of aircraft for the summer program, signs say that BRS wasn't the best performing so would've been on the list to be dropped. WOW's market is connections, yes EZY would be competition, but WOW serves a slightly different market.
I'd be surprised if an A330 could do Orlando etc fully loaded from BRS. TCX would've tried it if it was possible without regular disruption. Let not forget certain conditions will effect flights, so even if the A330 could do it on a good day, BRS gets many bad days. Are you saying that BRS runways and taxiways can handle A340 and B777??

 

[Ray Finkle]

Anybody considering using WOW may find THIS review helpful.

I quite fancy giving them a go

 

[Jerry]

I have seriously looked at them but the problem for me is they have no connections from LAX or SFO with an American airline. Whereas compared to KLM I can get a direct flight from AMS to PDX or if that's not available then there are plenty of flights via SEA LAX and SFO. And personally by the time I add on the flight up to Portland they are dearer than KLM/Skyteam.

 

[ljm104]

I've looked into flying with WOW for a return trip to New York from BRS for a week long break. To be honest I struggled to find a good value option within my date range. Once baggage had been included it came to £495. To my suprise flights of a similar duration, and on similar dates, with Brussels airlines were £379. Direct flights from LHR with United were £349. No contest really.

It may be that the bargain basement prices are only an option to those who have a great deal of flexibility with dates.

 

[Marko1]

Wow certainly seem to be using the a321 a lot recently. Surely if they were struggling they would be using the smaller a320 and putting the larger jet to better use. Also it's no coincidence that routes to bcn waw Lyon and Milan have now also been put on sale which were held back with brs . My only issue was the overly candid press release from brs about the plan to end the service. A bit of spin on that and we would have been none the wiser

 

[Jerry]

When I was looking at going away to Iceland for a weekend away I compared EZY and WOW and WOW was a lot cheaper by about £80 if I remember correctly so they can definitely compete on the point 2 point with EZY.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

When I was looking at going away to Iceland for a weekend away I compared EZY and WOW and WOW was a lot cheaper by about £80 if I remember correctly so they can definitely compete on the point 2 point with EZY.

I've checked the respective fares between BRS and KEF for both easyJet and WOW from now until the end of March.

easyJet is 2 x weekly currently, 3 x weekly in February, and 2 x weekly in March. WOW is 2 x weekly for the entire period.

WOW BRS-KEF 37.99 200.99 65.99 65.99 55.99 139.99 154.99 78.99 39.99 46.99 65.99 65.99 46.99 55.99 55.99 46.99 46.99 37.99

WOW KEF-BRS 46.99 55.99 65.99 46.99 39.99 55.99 65.99 171.99 46.99 139.99 94.99 65.99 78.99 94.99 65.99 65.99 46.99 78.99

easyJet BRS-KEF 65.99 153.49 63.99 46.49 76.99 76.99 44.49 169.99 246.49 46.99 145.49 154.49 36.49 44.49 109.49 109.49 76.99 174.99 49.49 149.49 124.49 133.49 49.49

easyJet KEF-BRS 100.49 91.99 66.99 47.99 57.99 181.99 57.99 156.99 202.49 181.99 197.49 225.49 96.49 200.99 303.49 152.99 191.99 161.99 120.49 181.99 166.99 96.49 111.49 90.99

easyJet is significantly dearer for the most part especially on the KEF-BRS sector. WOW does have a booking fee in addition to the fares quoted which ranged from £6+ to £13+ in the tests I made.

 

[big g]

WOW will never operate the A330 into Bristol.
I'd be surprised if an A330 could do Orlando etc fully loaded from BRS. TCX would've tried it if it was possible without regular disruption. Let not forget certain conditions will effect flights, so even if the A330 could do it on a good day, BRS gets many bad days. Are you saying that BRS runways and taxiways can handle A340 and B777??

WOW almost operated the A330 a few months back when they had issues, however on that occasion they chartered in a Titan aircraft to minimise the delay. but on the current rotations the loads are enough for the A320, but they are switching to an A321 fleet, and only have 2 A320's in the fleet.

I personally know the pilot who spent weeks in the sim running as many scenarios as they could to see if the A330 could do Orlando, and it can! the only reason it didn't happen was TOM piped them to the post launching the 787 routes. As i ave said in past posts the A330 from BRS will never be fully loaded neither will the 787. full to passenger capacity yes, but the aircraft will have lots of empty space in its belly. Also the 787 is not in its early stage as fuel efficient as some are lead to be leave, the New A330's give it a good run for its money.

Yes the A340 can fit after all its just an A330 with 4 engines, the 777 could also land the 777-200 is not much bigger than an A330-300/787-9 they all fall under the same category and the airfield has had some changes to the taxiways to accommodate these larger aircraft.

 

[Marko1]

I wonder if this a330 operator may think about operating long haul for summer 2018. It be nIce to have two operators for the punters to choose from

 

[kraktoa]

TLY

Did you type all those fares out. You have worn out the number 9 key...

 

[TheLocalYokel]

TLY

Did you type all those fares out. You have worn out the number 9 key...

Although I can type quite fast the iMac keyboard I use is quite small and my fingers sometimes hit part of a neighbouring key. It's all a bit different to the old manual typewriters I once used. You had to use Tippex paint or an eraser patch when you made a mistake.

Why do retail outlets and organisations such a airlines still believe that they can con people into believing that a fare is more agreeable at £99.99 than £100? Looking at the above fares I always say to myself that where, for example, the fare is £76.99 that it's really £77.

Petrol stations do a similar sort of thing in pricing litres of fuel at decimal points of a penny. I'm tempted to buy just one litre of petrol at, say, 122.16 pence and see what they try to charge me.

 

[superking]

I know what you mean the price of a ltr petrol. I been tempted my self many times. a very interesting one it is.

 

[forest1979]

So I flew with wow on Friday. Have to say it was all pretty standard but perfectly fine. It was bang on time, clean and tidy and had reasonable on board refreshments. Pretty much what you would expect for £49.00. I have to say much more reasonable than the easyJet flight on the way back which btw was a pretty dirty plane in need of some serious material maintenance. Annoyingly they had ran out of most things so the full flight back didn't have much of a choice. Pretty rubbish in my opinion for a £200 flight!
The wow flight was scheduled as an A320 but was a 321 and it appeared full. It was interesting when I got to kevlavick as we were one of about 8 wow flights landing, all full with lots of people in transit, particularly American tourists...
on a separate note and not really about wow, I did make some observations on the terminal which were new to me.. the new security area looked great and we flew through. The main part of the terminal also looked and felt nice and has plenty of seating. Having said the above, and pains me to say it, I cannot see how the terminal could cope with 10 million pax per year. There is no getting away from the fact that it still feels quite small and I guess it feels very crowded at peak times. The other thing I noted and maybe more as a comparison to other airports, the walkways created, particularly the west walkway, feels and looks pretty cheap. I think they cheaped out not using glass to give more of a view for passengers walking to gates. I think the lack of carpet, soft furnishings and overuse of seeing the main structure, makes it feel cold and pretty boring. Like me, I'm sure there are people that like to wonder around the airport, all areas. Not much point with bristol.. it's a shame as the new walkway is slightly better. I hope any further walkways have a bit more thought put into them. Finally, I do wonder if we will see any air bridges. Not nice getting wet and again something standard and common place at other airports.
I really like bristol but on reflection I think they could have done a bit better with the infrastructure, even with limited space.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Many thanks, forest for this account of your journey and of your airport experience.

First of all it's worthy of note that the flights were full in January (usually the worst month of the year for passenger numbers generally), with WOW operating the larger A321. My post at #208 in this thread shows how the easyJet point to point fares are invariably far higher than WOW's, up to £300 for a single sector. The fact they appear to be drawing in passengers at these prices must speak volumes for the yield. I'm surprised easyJet has stopped operating BRS-KEF in summer even though winter is probably the more popular season for Iceland. Presumably summer sun routes have superior yields to KEF in summer.

I also found it interesting that you were happy with your WOW experience. Skytrax paints a different picture but, as we know, people are always more likely to complain than praise on sites like that.

As to the airport at BRS, the western walkway was built as general permitted development which doesn't need formal planning consent. The snag was that at the time the floor space of the terminal had already been increased to its absolute legal maximum under the then planning consents. This meant that nothing could be put in the western walkway that could be taken as an extension of the terminal floor space. It could only be a corridor linking the terminal to the aircraft and as a result had few furnishings or facilities and looked (looks?) somewhat spartan. Despite that I seem to remember that it cost £7 million at circa 2009 prices.

However, following the local authority approval for the major terminal and other infrastructure expansion a couple of years later there was nothing to stop the airport putting in more facilities in the western walkway but they haven't done that much.

Most of the complaints relating to the western walkway seem to involve the distance to the far end (400 metres) with no travelator.

Perversely, that walkway is one of the few places in the terminal where it's possible to look down on the apron, or at least parts of it. Apart from the outdoor verandah in the eastern terminal extension which gives a limited view of the eastern end of the runway and eastern apron, BRS is not a spotter-friendly airport as it's next to impossible to see very much of the outside 'action' from most points within the terminal. Then again, airports are for transporting passengers, not a facility where people can indulge a hobby.

There is still planning permission in place for at least one air bridge but some airlines (especially low-cost ones with quick turn-arounds) don't like them as it slows things down.

I suppose that most people spend time at airports awaiting their flight either by eating in a lounge or cafe/restaurant, shopping or trying to watch aircraft. BRS has a decent selection of shops and eateries for its size but as previously noted is not good for aircraft watchers. I'm not a shopper (fortunately, neither is my wife) so we tend to spend our time eating/drinking whilst awaiting a flight. At BRS when the weather is co-operative I'll wander onto that outdoors verandah if the eating/drinking has been successfully concluded.

 

[forest1979]

Thanks for the update re the western walkway, some points you make which I wasn't aware of..
re the air bridges, the plans show more but I guess we will see if the appears to be the case as they continue to expand. You are right about the loco's.. STN has bridges at most of their gates but Ryanair tend not to use them and dispatch the stairs from the aircraft..
I think anyone complaining about WOW at their prices probably has too much time on their hands!!!

 

[Jerry]

There is still planning permission in place for at least one air bridge but some airlines (especially low-cost ones with quick turn-arounds) don't like them as it slows things down

Thanks for the update re the western walkway,

Only a guess but with 4 weekly long haul flights with Thomson then maybe they will be the ones to use any potential airbridges in the future and maybe KLM as well. Not sure whether BMI would use them or if they can?
And glad you had a nice trip forest!

 

[Foxlimayankee]

TOM are only operating 2x WEEKLY LH flights. I'm sure they would be used for the other based aircraft and TCX. The door on BMI Embraer opens out and down as steps so wouldn't be suitable for an airbridge. I can't see airbridges being installed until a US or ME carrier comes in.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

TOM are only operating 2x WEEKLY LH flights. I'm sure they would be used for the other based aircraft and TCX. The door on BMI Embraer opens out and down as steps so wouldn't be suitable for an airbridge. I can't see airbridges being installed until a US or ME carrier comes in.

I agree entirely with your comment about NYC/ME flights and the airbridge.

 

[Jerry]

WOW Air are to introduce a new set of fares.
WOW Basic includes the price of flight and 1 small bag (42x33x25cm).
WOW Plus includes the price of the flight and a small bag, hand luggage 12kg (56x45x25cm), 20kg checked baggage and cancellation protection.
WOW Biz includes the price of the flight, a small bag, hand baggage 12kg, 20kg checked baggage, the largest seat available, priority boarding and a meal on board.
They will also introduce a larger business class seat on their A330 fleet with the pitch being 37" up from 30". There will be 3 types of seat available 37", XXL 35-37" and XL 32-34".
So it looks like WOW are trying to target business passengers now rather than people looking for cheap flights.

www.mbl.is/vidskipti/frettir/2017/01/30/bjoda_upp_a_vidskiptafarrymi_og_breyta_farangurshei/
The article is in icelandic and i used Google translate to read it.