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High demand for cheap seats on planned flights this summer from BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport to Iceland and beyond to Europe has prompted airline WOW Air to move up the start of its newly scheduled route and offer the service year-round.
The new service first attracted attention last fall when the low-cost Icelandic carrier began touting $99 one-way fares from BWI to Reykjavik and London. The service was supposed to begin in June and end in October.
Instead, WOW will begin offering round-trip service between BWI and Reykjavik four days a week starting in May, the airline said Tuesday. In early June, round-trip service will begin running five days a week, with no seasonal end date.
"Although we were always optimistic about the success of new service at BWI, our bookings to and from the Washington/Baltimore region have far exceeded what we anticipated," Skúli Mogensen, WOW Air's founder and CEO, said in a statement. "Ticket sales on both sides of the Atlantic as well as in Iceland have been enormously successful. There is clear demand for affordable-high quality trans-Atlantic air service to and from Washington, Baltimore and the surrounding Mid-Atlantic market."
WOW flies to 20 European cities from Reykjavik. It offers year-round service to London, Berlin, Copenhagen and Paris, and will begin offering year-round service to Dublin and Amsterdam this summer.
The addition of the WOW Air flights is part of a broader plan for BWI to grow its presence in the international market.
"This is great news for our travelers that WOW air has already announced plans to grow its low- fare international service," said Paul J. Wiedefeld, the airport's CEO, in a statement. "We continue working to enhance air service opportunities for our customers."
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