The budget airline WOW Air, based in Iceland, shut down abruptly this week.
WOW, which operated in cities like Toronto, New York, and Montreal, offered super cheap flights to European destinations Paris, London, and Reykjavik.
Big shout out to @wow_air for allowing me to book my whole Europe trip just days ago, and now going bankrupt. Rip to all my money
— Veron (@veron_campagna) March 28, 2019
The airline posted on its website to say all flights had been suspended, and told customers to find a new flight on a different airline. The move stranded hundreds of passengers in Europe and elsewhere.
It's chaos at the Toronto airport after low budget airline @wow_air shuts down and cancels all flights #Toronto #WowAir https://t.co/7UgQpYvhqS pic.twitter.com/K835SLCC6F
— blogTO (@blogTO) March 28, 2019
Many are without a solution as their flights were cancelled with no notice.
Hey @Fly_Norwegian since @wow_air has me stuck in Iceland tomorrow any deals to get me home to Toronto?
— Tanja (@TanjawithaJ) March 28, 2019
Others were told to contact their credit card company to determine if they could receive a refund. That isn't very helpful at getting home from a foreign land, though. WOW also did not offer refunds to the passengers it stranded.
@wow_air
— Rednell (@NicholasCallend) March 28, 2019
My Gatwick to Toronto flight was cancelled this morning with less than 24 hrs notification. Under EU law compensation should be given and if they go bankrupt then credit card company should issue a refund - hopefully. Booked another flight home a few days ago.
WOW had spent the past year or so trying to bail itself out of financial chaos, first attempting to sell itself to its own carrier, Icelandair, and then later trying to broker a deal with Indigo Partners, which offers the cheap American airline Wizz.
There were several flights grounded that were meant to depart late last night from several North American cities, including Toronto, Boston, New York, Baltimore, Detroit, and Montreal.
Hey @BMO ! Is "operational restrictions" covered for trip delay and/or trip cancellations? Our @wow_air @wowairsupport flight was just cancelled out of Toronto for that "reason."
— Mike Wendling (@WendlingMike) March 28, 2019
In Europe, people are stranded in places like Amsterdam, Dublin, Paris, Brussels, Copenhagen, Frankfurt, and Berlin after more than 15 flights were grounded this morning.
The website also allowed people to book flights basically right up until the closure announcement.
A family of four travelling over the bank holiday could have paid #wowair over a thousand pounds this morning to book flights the airline knew would never take off (or refund). It went out of business just two hours later. Complete and utter irresponsibility. pic.twitter.com/koDaCXEZNJ
— Rory Boland (@roryboland) March 28, 2019
So far, WOW has not commented on the closure since its initial announcement.
by Staff via blogTO
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