New Low-Cost Airline Planned

An Icelandic hotel director has plans to establish a new low-cost airline, mbl.is reports. Hreiðar Hermannson, the director of Stracta Hotel, South Iceland, states that a route plan has been prepared, but admits it’s too early to tell when operation will begin.

He declines to reveal who, aside from him, is involved in the planning, only that those are people who used to work for the bankrupt WOW Air.

“During the planning stage,this is a small group of people,” he remarks. “All of the people working on this are experienced people from WOW Air, people who are familiar with every aspect of airline operation, pilots and others - people of top quality.”

Hreiðar notes, however, that WOW Air founder Skúli Mogensen is not among the participants and that the goal is not to resurrect WOW. This, he stresses, is a new company, which would apply for a new flight operating license.

“We already have a route plan, which aims to operate two aircraft to begin with. Those would fly to Copenhagen and London, and then to Alicante and Tenerife at night. A year from now, the goal is for four aircraft to be in operation, perhaps looking toward the United States,” he explains. The emphasis will be on keeping things as simple as possible.

“This is a low-cost airline, with as simple a structure as possible. Tickets will be sold at a price which gives an acceptable operating surplus.” He states that he already has investors at the table. “No figures are ready, but there is a strong interest.” No other people in the hotel sector are involved in the project, he notes.

Hreiðar won’t reveal how much he has spent on the preliminary work underway. “All I care about is for someone to get this done and for this to get going. For me, the only interest is a general interest in trying to increase the variety of fares to and from the country.”

He has not yet contacted aircraft leasing companies, but doesn’t foresee a problem with that.
“That won’t be an obstacle. The supply of planes that can be leased is substantial,” he asserts. No decision has been made about whether to lease Airbus or Boeing aircraft, but a comparison between the two appears to indicate that Airbus is a likelier choice, he states.

As for a name, Hreiðar says he would prefer to call the airline Air Stracta. It has worked well for his hotel business, he states, but he admits there is no guarantee his suggestion for a name will be accepted by the rest of the participants.