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By Alex Rychwalski
Capital News Service

WASHINGTON — The Wow Air counter at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, usually buzzing with travelers and employees, sat barren without a soul on Thursday, a stark symbol of the airline’s sudden closure.

The low-cost carrier, based in Iceland, confirmed Thursday in a statement and on its website that it had ended operations and cancelled all previously scheduled flights, leaving travelers stranded in Maryland, three other U.S. airports it serves, and abroad.

“Wow Air has ceased operation,” the statement read. “All Wow Air flights have been cancelled.”

Many passengers holding tickets learned of Wow’s demise only when they reached airports, according to news accounts. Customers holding Wow tickets for future trips were not contacted.

As recently as Tuesday, the carrier known for its distinctive purple Airbus jets was promoting trips while potential investors met in a last-ditch effort to save it. The carrier needed about $40 million to stay aloft, according to industry reports.

“I will never forgive myself for not taking action sooner as it’s evident that WOW was an amazing airline and we were on the right track to do great things again,” the airline’s owner and CEO, Skúli Mogensen, wrote in a letter Thursday morning to employees, according to Iceland Monitor.

“You all deserve so much more and I am so sorry to put you in this position,” Mogensen said. “I want to thank our passengers who stood by us from day one, our partners around the world and not least relevant authorities. We all tried our best until the very end.”

When a Wow Air flight was first cancelled in the early morning on Monday, the carrier cited a “delay of an incoming flight” as the reason for halting the trip.

But as one cancellation grew to several and one airport spread to many, it became apparent that the reduction in flights wasn’t for any operational reasons. Rather, they were the warnings of an imminent end.

Despite being trapped, flyers have been left little room for recourse, other than purchasing a second ticket with another airline.

“Passengers are advised to check available flights with other airlines,” the Wow statement read. “Some airlines may offer flights at a reduced rate, so-called rescue fares, in light of the circumstances.”

Rival carrier Icelandair was offering discounted economy fares for stuck passengers who had return tickets on Wow Air for travel between March 28 and April 11.

The airline’s statement also outlined passengers’ rights and possible paths for reimbursement. But for the many Americans stranded at airports across the world, like Lyla Rodrigues, the message came far too late to make other arrangements.

“So…my sister is stuck in BWI & my father & I are here in Iceland awaiting her and now we are hearing we might not have a flight to come home to BWI on 4/3,” Rodrigues wrote on Twitter. “How have we not been directly notified as to what we are supposed to do?”

Wow Air was founded by Icelandic entrepreneur Mogensen in 2011, with its first flight taking to the skies in 2012.

The airline expanded to the United States in 2015. In 2018, Wow flew 3.5 million passengers — 165,628 out of Baltimore, making up less than 1 percent of all flyers out of BWI, according to data from the airport.

Wow first showed signs of financial stress last year, when it laid off some employees and reduced its fleet from 20 to 11 aircraft.

More trouble came earlier this year, when a takeover by Icelandair — originally announced last November — was abandoned after the shareholder preconditions were unlikely to be met.

The same day, Indigo Partners, stakeholders in many low-cost carriers, stepped in to absorb the airline, but the proposal was similarly withdrawn in March.

With a tenuous financial history, the future is uncertain. But bankruptcy may be on the horizon.

“In case of a bankruptcy,” the carrier’s statement read, “claims should be filed to the administrator/liquidator.”

The Icelandic government apparently was less surprised than the general public about the quick end to Wow Air.

Iceland’s minister of tourism, Tordis Kolbrun Reykfjord Gylfadottir, told reporters in Reykjavik that her agency was anticipating the carrier’s shutdown.

“What’s happening here is what we have prepared for as very likely to happen,” she was quoted as saying by the Reykjavik Grapevine. “This is of course disappointing and one especially feels for the employees of the company.”

About 1,000 people worked for Wow Air.

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WOODBRIDGE — A $36 million renovation of Northern Virginia Community College’s Woodbridge campus is expected to start in fall 2020. The Seefeldt Building will be updated to include centralized student services, new classroom spaces, and updated infrastructure.

The renovation, which will take approximately 18-24 months, will provide badly-needed updates and changes to the nearly 50-year-old building.

The Seefeldt Building is the campus’ main instructional and administrative building, and the majority of classrooms are located there. With it being out of commission, space is going to be a bit tight.

Students will be moved into 60,000 to 70,000 square feet of temporary trailer space. Student numbers will also be doubled in other academic buildings.

“The students and faculty are really entitled to this renovation,” Dr. Sam Hill, Woodbridge campus provost, told Potomac Local. “The building is almost 50 years old. We are long overdue for facilities that really support instruction as it needs to be delivered today.”

The renovations will fulfill several goals.

The first is ease of getting around the building. All student services and enrollment services will be centralized in the updated building. As it currently stands, a new student enters the second level of the building for student services, then has to go to the fourth floor for the testing center. The business office is in a different location, as is parking services and financial aid.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if we have students that come in and then — out of frustration when they can’t find where they’re supposed to be going — leave,” said Hill. “We’re bringing all of those services into one location, so it can be one stop.”

Another anticipated goal is improving and increasing classroom space. Science lab space will be increased. Additional classrooms will be added for new programs that are taking off on the NOVA campus, such as the film and cinema program.

The building’s infrastructure, including HVAC and windows, will be updated and include energy-efficient components. New windows will be added to increase the amount of natural light that enters the building.

New space to support extracurricular student life is also planned.

“Times have changed,” said Hill. “Early community colleges in Virginia served primarily working adults. They would come to class and leave. But we’re starting to attract a younger student body and they want that campus life. In addition to attending class, they want to be able to have a campus life, socialize, and spend time on campus. We want to provide space for those activities.”

The planned renovation of the Seefeldt Building comes after the long-planned addition of an 84,000 square-foot academic building, dubbed Phase III, opened in 2013. In 2016, a $29 million, 55,000 square-foot workforce education center opened on the campus. 

These renovations are needed to keep up with many of the newer Prince William County Public Schools that have opened in recent years.

“There are high schools that are much newer than us,” he said. “When you think of students graduating from high school and coming to NOVA for higher education — in many cases, they are going into facilities that are not as modern as the high schools they left behind.”

“That’s not the right environment for students and it doesn’t reflect well on us — as a college or as an institution of higher education,” adds Hill. 

The campus is located at 2645 College Drive in Woodbridge. Nearby, a new Brickyard Co-Work Center is slated to open later this year after the Prince William County Board of Supervisors granted the firm $400,000 to open the center in an effort to spur economic development in the area.

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