Planning to make WOW air's fleet of planes five times bigger

Skúli Mogensen, the owner and CEO of WOW air, is planning to make the company's fleet of planes five times bigger in the next five years, parallel to the development of a route system between Europe and U.SA. Both will entail chartering and purchasing of commercial airplanes, bu the company's fleet of planes might include 30 planes in the year of 2020.

Skúli gave an account of this at the ongoing ITB-tourism industry Expo in Berlin and confirms this in an interview with Fréttablaðið. By this construction, Skúli is going to increase the number of WOW passengers by 50% every year during this period.

"We are adding three planes for this year, increasing them from six to nine planes. As a result thereof, I've said that compared with the size of the market, but 50 million people fly across the ocean every year from North-America to Europe, then this is realistic. This is the target market of Icelandair, but low price airlines have not served this area and therefore this is close enough," Skúli says, but in comparison Icelandair's fleet of planes for international flight - passenger carrying operation - comprise today 24 planes; six more than in the year of 2013.

Not a month has passed since WOW air announced the purchase of two new Airbus A321-211 passenger jets. The planes were acquired by hire purchase for a period of 12 years, so the company will come into possession of them in that time. Skúli said in an interview with Fréttablaðið on February 19th that WOW had entered a way bigger purchase agreement of very favourable terms, enabling that company to complete financing, without revealing the purchaser price. However, the list price of these passenger jets is about 15 billion Icelandic Kronas.

When asked about further purchases or rent of those 24 airplanes in question, Skúli says: "This construction will continue to be a combination of these two. Those will be new Airbus 320- and Airbus 321-planes," Skúli says, but the planes at WOW's disposal today are exactly of this kind.

When asked about this rapid construction, Skúli says that between years the growth in the number of passengers has been from 500.000 to approximately 800.000 passengers, or 65%. "Again we expect  50% growth into the year of 2016, so this is a logical progression of the construction of the company," Skúli says, adding that the superstructure will not grow to a substantial extent despite a growth, as a lot has been invested in necessary infrastructure. Yet, naturally the workers will increase, mostly flight crew members and pilots. About 175 people are now employed at WOW air.