WOW Air

[superking]

Last summer season there was suppose to be a B 737 on some of the rotations, but as we know it did not happen. I don't know the reason or any one has the reason why it did not happen.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

With the loss of Wow and their westbound passengers would it be a good time for KLM to increase their offering as has been rumoured before with either a 737 on the route or increase the schedule ?

I would have the time must be due for an increase in capacity on the Amsterdam route. Incidentally the route is growing but only by small percentages compared to others so it may suggest that demand is being squeezed by a lack of seats on offer ?

The difficulty we have is in establishing the respective share of passenger numbers on the BRS-AMS route with KLM offering 4 x daily (28 x weekly) E190 aircraft and easyJet operating 11 x weekly with six A319s and five A 320s each week. Furthermore, we don't know how many of KLM's passengers are point to point and how many fly on into KLM's worldwide network.

These are the annual passenger figures (to the nearest 000) for the past ten years on BRS-AMS, with KLM and easyJet competing for the entire period:

2007 283,000
2008 244,000
2009 230,000
2010 224,000
2011 289,000
2012 310,000
2013 321,000
2014 350,000
2015 384,000
2016 409,000

The total for the first six months of 2017 is 200,565 compared with 198,668 for the first six months of 2016.

A look at the past decade shows a significant fall between 2008 and 2010 when the effects of the recession were still making themselves felt, after which there has been a noticeable increase from one year to the next - until this year when figures are little more than flat for the first half of the year.

Additional rotations by KLM (or easyJet) would doubtless increase the annual numbers but would load factors, and most importantly, yields stand up?

In June this year (the last month for which CAA stats are available for BRS) the route carried 35,137 passengers, just a handful more than in June 2016. Taking all seats available across both airlines I make the overall load factor to be 87.8%. I have assumed an E190 on all KLM flights although an E175 might have substituted on the odd occasion. I have also assumed 180 seats in the easyJet A320s. I'm not sure if any have been increased to 186 seats.

That might suggest that it is not necessarily a lack of flights that is keeping the figures flat given that 12.2% of the seats that month were not sold, or at least not occupied.

 

[Marko1]

Thought I try wow on social media again and they said they will be returning next summer but I don't know how accurate it would be

 

[Jerry]

I think with WOW anything could happen!

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Thought I try wow on social media again and they said they will be returning next summer but I don't know how accurate it would be

Nothing for sale next summer yet on the WOW booking engine website. Gatwick and Dublin are bookable through next summer but Edinburgh isn't yet, although it is to operate through the coming winter.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Last flights will be the day after tomorrow (27th). Today the local paper did an article on the withdrawal. Nothing about returning next summer although they, in the finest tradition of Trinity Mirror regional rags, were only paraphrasing a travel website they'd discovered.

 

[Marko1]

Very sloppy and inaccurate journalism again . Just tweeted wow air who confirm again to me that they are still working on the schedule and no it's not dropped. I'm surprised the airport is putting up with the inaccuracies

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Very sloppy and inaccurate journalism again . Just tweeted wow air who confirm again to me that they are still working on the schedule and no it's not dropped. I'm surprised the airport is putting up with the inaccuracies

BRS is still in the drop-down list of airports on the WOW website but there is nothing bookable for next summer. EDI's WOW frequency seems to be reducing next summer from 4 x weekly to 3 x weekly.

 

[Marko1]

Taken off the app tho. Last year they re released in January so let's hope

 

[Foxlimayankee]

From what I'm told the decision to chop or continue has still not been made.

 

[Marko1]

That's the impression that they have left me too. However it really is not a good impression to leave someone. It's like having a party invite and waiting to the last minute to decide if you are going or not depending on who else is going. I just wish easyJet or icelandair would come in and send them packing .

 

[TheLocalYokel]

That's the impression that they have left me too. However it really is not a good impression to leave someone. It's like having a party invite and waiting to the last minute to decide if you are going or not depending on who else is going. I just wish easyJet or icelandair would come in and send them packing .

easyJet seems to regard Keflavik as winter-only these days. They operated 'summer routes' to the likes of Bordeaux and Bilbao through last winter and the loads weren't great in the winter months, and they are operating again this winter, but won't operate KEF in summer when its loads were high in the summers it did operate.

I know it's the yields that count and, despite having very good summer loads on KEF there were probably even better opportunities on other BRS summer routes. Perhaps in winter the alternatives aren't so good hence Bordeaux and Bilbao albeit the loads are ordinary, or were last winter. They are only point to point BRS-KEF-BRS of course.

Icelandair? Might have been put off by WOW's coming and going.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Further to the above, I'd forgotten that TUI is to start its own 2 x weekly service to Keflavik next winter and in the likely event of easyJet continuing its own KEF next winter that would mean up to 5 x weekly between the two airlines.

So, if WOW did return - I believe it's highly unlikely - I can't see them operating in the winter against easyJet and TUI. I suppose a summer service again might just be possible.

 

[alphagolf]

Bristol has now been removed from the drop down list of airports on the WOW website, so highly unlikely we will see any return of WOW.

 

[Aviador]

Bristol has now been removed from the drop down list of airports on the WOW website, so highly unlikely we will see any return of WOW.

Thanks Alphagolf. We're having a bad run with Iceland flights at the moment with Birmingham loosing Icelandair too.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Bristol has now been removed from the drop down list of airports on the WOW website, so highly unlikely we will see any return of WOW.

Many thanks alphagolf. I haven't 'liked' your post because of its content but because of the information you have imparted.

 

[BSL-2km]

You know Iceland may not be that great after all ? nice for a wee lookie around then what ?... the atlantic crossing hub is not a seller... aircraft range these days makes east coast US an easy jaunt... plus when in Iceland it is expensive.
Obviously the flight frequency/availability is related to demand...

 

[TheLocalYokel]

You know Iceland may not be that great after all ? nice for a wee lookie around then what ?... the atlantic crossing hub is not a seller... aircraft range these days makes east coast US an easy jaunt... plus when in Iceland it is expensive.
Obviously the flight frequency/availability is related to demand...

BRS still has the easyJet flights to Keflavik although this has now become just a winter route. It used to be year-round.

 

[superking]

Looks like the beginning of the end for WOW. They have returned 2 or 3 aircrafts to lessors in SNN. they have dropped routes to Europe and U S A,also dropped rotations to airports in Europe and U S A which they still use.
They were due to be taken over by Icelandair but that deal fell through.
Feel sorry for all staff involved and hope they get employment sorted out.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

The staff always suffer when companies go out of business or downsize. I never felt that WOW was completely committed to BRS. They were up against easyJet on the Bristol-Keflavik sector and there may not have been enough passengers to use the USA connections because once the additions such as refreshments etc were added the flights were sometimes not that much cheaper than using some of the BRS hubs to the USA or even travelling to LHR for a direct service. Some of the long delays into BRS when passengers missed connecting flights didn't help their cause either.

I believe that WOW could be a good deal when everything clicked but there always that uncertainty, at least in my eyes.

It is sad when airlines go out of business but that has always been the nature of the industry. At the moment things seem particularly gloomy with a number of airlines either having disappeared or struglling.