WOW Air

[Jerry]

that the Q400 would take longer to reach KEF from BHD.

It's down as 2 hrs 55 mins and I believe that factors in headwinds. I'll be flying on a Q400 for the first time in a couple of weeks and i'm interested to see what the difference will be compared to the last time i flew the same flight (different airline) on an E170. Think the last time i was on a turboprop was when I was 10 and my mum and dad took us to Jersey from BRS. It was the first time i'd ever flown and that was 25 years ago! Honestly can't remember the airline.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Where are you off to Jerry?

When you went to Jersey the airline would almost certainly have been Brymon using DH 8-300s. They were owned by BA and later operated as BA franchisee from BRS in BA colours, later under the BACitiexpress banner which morphed into BAConnect.

 

[Jerry]

Where are you off to Jerry?

When you went to Jersey the airline would almost certainly have been Brymon using DH 8-300s. They were owned by BA and later operated as BA franchisee from BRS in BA colours, later under the BACitiexpress banner which morphed into BAConnect.

Portland Oregon, it's where my girlfriend lives. It'll be my 4th trip in the last 13 months. Going for Xmas and New Year. I did look at WOW this time but by the time i add on the flight from San Francisco or LAX then it wasn't worth it. With KLM and Delta there is a direct flight from AMS but for some reason they never offered the return from PDX so i'm flying up to Seattle on an Alaska Horizon Q400 then Delta to CDG and Flybe to CWL under an Air France codeshare it should take about 20 hours. So first time on a Q400 and first time with Flybe and it'll be first time on a KLM Embraer as well! From a personal point of view Icelandair to KEF from CWL would be great as they have a direct flight to Portland a couple of times a week with a 757 200. Flybe moving their CDG flight to the morning has effectively given CWL a 13.00 skyteam/KLM arrival like BRS has so no 8 hour wait in AMS if i miss the 09.50 departure!

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Have a great time. I'm sure you will.

 

[Aviador]

So is there still no word on whether WOW is staying for the summer?

 

[Jerry]

Nope it looks like WOW has dropped BRS. As a lot of their focus is towards connecting passengers to and from the US maybe they weren't getting as much as they need to make it a viable route especially from the American side.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

If WOW is intending to cease flying from BRS at the end of this winter why doesn't the airport and/or airline say so? I'm reading elsewhere that WOW are still not giving a direct answer when people ask them if they are stopping their Bristol service.

If they are why prevaricate? If they are not then why don't they put the service back into the booking engine from the end of March when the current booking availability ceases?

 

[Jerry]

Could there be a charges negotiation going on? Maybe WOW are trying to get a cheaper deal from BRS? I'd be surprised if the airport announced that WOW had left as generally they only announce positive things. It is a mystery.

 

[Marko1]

To be honest this wow saga is really not doing it any favours. There is now three months left before the start of the summer season and they refuse to answer a simple yes or no question. I myself have tweeted them several times and I get the same non commital answer from them. It really doesn't paint them any good does it. If they gonna go just say so , it's getting tedious now

 

[Seasider]

As was mooted a couple of posts ago, they don't announce a cessation of a route.

 

[Jerry]

It could be they are just quietly dropping the route and the neither side wants any negative publicity because of it.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

I know I go on about such things like a stuck record but if airports and airlines make a big thing of a new airline and sometimes a new route it really behoves them to at least answer a question honestly when asked if a route is continuing. If a decision genuinely hasn't been made they should say so.

I remember we had this will they?/won't they? with Helvetic to Zurich at the beginning of one winter when we all thought the route had been axed only for it to be put back on sale just weeks before that winter season began. How many bookings they lost because of the uncertainty we shall never know. They did finally axe the route the following year.

Some airlines will announce route cessations but in my experience they are in a distinct minority. Continental gave about eight months notice publicly when they decided to axe BRS-EWR.

 

[BRSregular]

They play their cards very close to their chest but I've just had this from WOW...
Hi there!
Thank you for contacting us.
Unfortunately it is uncertain whether we will fly from Bristol after March. If there will be flights the schedule will be available within the next few days, or in the beginning of January. Please stay tuned on our website

Kind Regards,
WOW air,
BE

 

[Marko1]

I wonder what is going on with wow. If it was poor sales they would have already decided. If there was good yields flights would have been already on sale. Something else must be going on

 

[superking]

If the wow flights are binned,i wonder if we will ever find out the truth why.

my gut feeling with it being so late in keeping the route going is if dropped as a lot of work in getting pax on to their aircraft as many would have booked on another carrier. If it is dropped there is 3 main reasons as in EasyJet flights to kef with good losdings ,as they are very good at doing point to point,also how close lhr is to brs with direct flights to many parts of the U S A. the other thing might be aer lingus with pre immigration in dub,and also carriers with flights to main hubs in Europe, which they seemed to have upped their game on connecting traffic and point to point.

 

[Sierra3]

A very looong shot but maybe the New Year will bring a new carrier direct to the US east coast (or negotiations are ongoing) & the airport has asked WOW to hold back on their announcement of discontinuation until its announced / firmed up.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

They play their cards very close to their chest but I've just had this from WOW...
Hi there!
Thank you for contacting us.
Unfortunately it is uncertain whether we will fly from Bristol after March. If there will be flights the schedule will be available within the next few days, or in the beginning of January. Please stay tuned on our website

Kind Regards,
WOW air,
BE

As others have said, this does appear to be a 'rum do'. My best guess is that WOW and BRS are still negotiating but that perhaps the airline wants more from the airport than the airport is prepared to give.

To add further intrigue into the mix, the below report appeared in the local paper today.

http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/you-ca...-for-just-80/story-30016712-detail/story.html

There is no press release on the airport website so I assume the airline is responsible for the press release that is the basis of this newspaper report. A similar report appears in the local Plymouth paper today with BRS the starting point.

The snag is that to get to Edinburg to board a Norwegian aircraft entails an easyJet flight from BRS to EDI. There is nothing to suggest that this is any sort of code share with Norwegian with through booking. So it seems that a passenger would be purchasing two separate tickets with the attendant risks (cancelled, delayed easyJet flight)

 

[Ray Finkle]

To add further intrigue into the mix, the below report appeared in the local paper today.

http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/you-ca...-for-just-80/story-30016712-detail/story.html

There is no press release on the airport website so I assume the airline is responsible for the press release that is the basis of this newspaper report. A similar report appears in the local Plymouth paper today with BRS the starting point.

The snag is that to get to Edinburg to board a Norwegian aircraft entails an easyJet flight from BRS to EDI. There is nothing to suggest that this is any sort of code share with Norwegian with through booking. So it seems that a passenger would be purchasing two separate tickets with the attendant risks (cancelled, delayed easyJet flight)

The Coventry Telegraph have a similar article today highlighting Birmingham to NY for £91.

I can't say that I am convinced.

Apologies for going off toic.

 

[andrewgreen]

Hi all , my first post on here but a long time lurker !
Regarding Wow , my son is at uni in Toronto and has used the service 3 times (return ) since it started and said it has always been pretty full . The inbound to Bristol today was operated by a A.321 and was completely full !
I would imagine the load factors are pretty good so it seems strange that they are 'possibly' pulling out , hopefully it is last minute brinkmanship !

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Welcome andrew. Thank you for your post and the information contained therein.

The WOW loads have seemed pretty decent but of course the important stat is the yield the airline obtains. As always those outside an airline are rarely if ever in a position to know the yield on a route or even at a base, as it's usually considered commercially confidential.

We can only hope that WOW doesn't axe the route. It sounds as though we should know within a week or two.

We look forward to reading more posts from you. Unlike some aviation message boards we are delighted to hear every shade of opinion, from the professionals to those with a layman's interest in the subject.