WOW Air Is Dead; Long Live The WAB!

A new low-budget airline has officially emerged from the depths of the brutal bankruptcy of WOW Air. The new airline, WAB, which we reported on last month, is officially in the financial stages, Fréttablaðið reports.

Among the crew behind the new airline are two former executives from WOW Air. One of the founders of this new airline, Sveinn Ingi Steinþórsson, confirmed earlier this week that the airline has rented a 300 square meter office in the town of Garðabær and has already begun hiring employers for the winter.

Waiting for flight permission

The new airline is now working on getting its flight permission and is also looking for investors to fund the company. The founders have said that they are looking to Icelandic banks to loan the company 31 million Euros and afterwards plan to head to Switzerland to close the financing.

The airline aims to be up and running in the fall with six planes that would fly to 14 different locations, both in Europe and the United States.

The odd twist

Oddly enough, a peculiar investor popped up unexpectedly to WAB a few weeks ago. The hopeful investor, Michele Ballarin, claimed that she was trying to buy up all of the remaining properties out of the bankrupt estate of WOW Air. What’s more, she said that she had already made a deal with the Dulles airport in Washington to restore WOW Air in some form and fly to the United States. The founders of WAB promptly said that they were in no discussion with Michele.

For those that do not know Michele Ballarin, she runs an arms company that made headlines about a decade ago when she tried to negotiate with Somalian pirates.

Her deal with the bankrupt estate of WOW Air was then revoked shortly after and it appears that her plans did not work out.

If nothing unexpected happens, WAB Air will be up and running in the fall, and tourists can once again find a low-budget option to travel to Iceland.