After Announcing Route Closure, WoW to Again Fly to Israel

After announcing that it was pulling out of Israel, and the Middle East altogether, WoW, the Icelandic carrier that was one of the first low-cost foreign airlines to fly to Israel, announced that it will recommence its flights to and from Tel Aviv, beginning in June. And, instead of flying three flights a week as it did until now, the airline will have four round-trip flights between Israel and Iceland.

In its announcement Tuesday, the company said that it will begin selling tickets Wednesday. Tickets are likely to be the same price they were previously – starting at $200 per flight to or from Reykjavik, with connections to New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, Montreal, Toronto, and other North American cities. The flights will continue through October 2019, when the company will again take a “winter break” from its Israel routes.

As a low-cost airline, WoW is competing in an increasingly crowded space, as Israel’s “Open Skies” policies have attracted numerous competing low-cost carriers. With the imminent opening of Ovda Airport near Eilat, even more low-cost carriers are expected, the Transport Ministry said. Like the others, WoW offers various levels of service, with passengers paying for amenities like seat choice, meals, luggage, etc.

In an announcement in July, WoW said that it would halt its Israel service at the beginning of November. In a statement, WoW said that it “hopes to return to Israel in the near future,” and that the reason for the ending of the flights to and from Israel was due to “operational, logistic, and economic issues.”

WoW Air was established in 2011 by a prominent Icelandic business figure, and since then has expanded significantly. In 2016 over 1.6 million people traveled with the airline to its various destinations between North America and Europe, with Reykjavik as its hub.