WOW Air CEO Paints Bleak Picture of Airline's Future in Bondholder Letter
Time is not on WOW Air's side. While Icelandair announced its intentions to acquire the struggling carrier a few weeks ago, that's not looking as certain right now. In a rare move, CEO Skuli Mogensen penned a letter to bondholders that paints a pretty rough picture. He not only blames "significant bad publicity about the financial health of WOW Air" for creating a situation where its Q4 financials are "materially worse than originally anticipated," but lays out his view of a domino effect leading to today. [Update, 3/28/2019: WOW Air has ceased operations. Find our ongoing coverage of WOW Air's collapse, and what affected passengers can do about it, here.]
The series of unfortunate events includes, bizarrely, Primera Air's collapse, which Mogensen claims "further worsened an already challenged situation." As the walls have closed in around the carrier, customers are booking less and creditors are hounding WOW Air for payments — not exactly ideal when you're having cash flow problems. New York's JFK, Dallas, St. Louis, Cleveland, Cincinnati and Tel Aviv routes have been casualties of WOW Air's contraction so far.
Mogensen goes on to say that WOW Air has been "working diligently to seek additional funding." He has personally sunk another 5.5 million euro into the bond, noting that the company is "taking every step possible to ensure the continuous operation of WOW Air."
If you have a booking, now would be a good time to check which credit card you used to purchase the flight and familiarize yourself with the card's trip cancellation policies and other travel benefits. We've reached out to WOW Air for comment and will update if a response is provided.
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