Wow Air Shuts Down Business; Cancels Flights And Leaves Passengers Stranded

Wow Air is officially out of business. 

Icelandic budget carrier, Wow Air, announced their closure in a statement posted to its website Thursday. In the announcement, the company advised passengers to book new flights on other airlines as soon as possible and only offered compensation to those passengers that may be eligible. 

According to CNN, Wow Air CEO, Skúli Mogensen, told Icelandic state broadcaster RUV that negotiations to save the airline went on until the early morning in Iceland, but in the end, no deal was reached. 

“As is normal, people believed we would get the investment,” Mogensen said. “We have been very transparent, but it didn’t happen.”

Mogensen regretfully said more than 1,000 passengers had been affected by the grounding of the aircraft. However, he said he didn’t have an exact figure on the number of tickets that had been sold.

“I’m very sorry about this as these are people who have supported us,” said Mogensen. “I’m disappointed not to honor our commitments.”

Some passengers were left stranded at the airport only finding out that their flights had been canceled during their travels. Some are still scrambling to find alternatives to get to their ultimate destinations. 

At Boston Logan International airport, Wow staff members informed customers of prolonged delays Wednesday night- and eventually boarded the waiting aircraft themselves-without any announcements to waiting passengers-and shut the doors behind them. 

Wow Air also deactivated their Facebook page, which has been inundated with complaints from confused customers.

The company’s tagline of “We aim to Wow!” Is turning into a punchline, as posts from passengers read “We just got Wow’d.”