Reykjavík Grapevine - 19.07.2019, Qupperneq 12

When WOW Air suddenly ceased all
operations in March 2019, filing for
bankruptcy shortly thereafter, the
primary question that arose was how
Iceland’s tourism market would be
affected by its demise. Recent tourism
figures have given strong indications
that it has had an effect, but at the
same time, former management and
assets of WOW Air are also being used
to cobble together two new airlines:
virtual clone WAB Air, and a newer
version of WOW.
The date of WOW’s collapse falls
very close to the end of the first quar-
ter of 2019. Recent data from Statistics
Iceland on the second quarter gives us
some indication of the effect this had:
overall tourism did decrease, by about
20%, but something very interesting
happened to accommodations: book-
ings for AirBnB rentals, popular with
the budget traveller, declined by 14%
in this quarter, while decidedly more
expensive hotel bookings remained
more or less unchanged. It might not be
unreasonable to wager that the sudden
disappearance of a budget airline then
had a more significant impact on
budget accommodation than it did on
more expensive rooming options.
Luck o’ the Irish
Earlier this month, Fréttablaðið
reported that a new airline—dubbed
WAB Air—was in the works. The minds
behind this project have some very
optimistic projec-
tions: they expect
s o m e 1 m i l l i o n
passengers to fly
with WAB Air, which
will hire 500 employ-
ees over the next 12
months, generating
about 20 billion ISK
in revenue.
Ho w e v e r, t h i s
is contingent on a
significant capital
investment from
Av i a n t a C a p i t a l ,
an Irish company,
which has report-
edly pledged some 5
billion ISK to WAB Air in exchange for
a 75% stake in the company. The other
25% will go to a new company called
Neo which, it turns out, is led by some
former WOW Air board members.
These folks are also trying to get Arion
bank and Landsbanki to lend money to
Avianta for investment in the company,
but that has yet to play out.
Somali jihadists and
budget airlines
Far more interesting is the possible
resurrection of WOW itself. When it
came to light that someone was buying
up WOW’s logo, website domain name,
uniforms and other assets, reporters in
Iceland did some digging and discov-
ered that the driving force behind this
was one Michele Ballarin.
A recent profile on Michele in
Foreign Policy magazine described her
as a “flamboyant West Virginia heiress”,
who bears the distinction of organis-
ing Sufi resistance against Wahhabi
militant groups in Somalia since 2006.
Providing both money and logistical
support to these resistance fighters,
she has been involved with both the
Pentagon and the
CIA in these efforts
for years. And now,
she apparently wants
to breathe new life
into a budget airline
in Iceland.
This naturally
raises the question:
what plans does
Michele have for
WOW Air, exactly?
Will WOW re-emerge
with a new MO, or
does this mark a new
field of interest for
her? Those questions
remain unanswered,
but unless and until one or both of
these airlines get off the ground, the
lack of budget flight to Iceland has had
a greater impact on budget travellers
to the country than it has had on the
number of booked hotel rooms.
Words:
Andie Fontaine
Photo:
Marvin Mutz
12 The Reykjavík Grapevine
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“Ballarin has
been involved
with both the
Pentagon and
the CIA, and
apparently wants
to breathe new
life into a budget
airline in Iceland.”
Picking The Bones
Of WOW
The ghost of the late budget airline haunts Iceland still
What even is a WAB?