Icelandic airline Wow Air is launching transatlantic flights from London Gatwick to the US cities of Boston and Washington via Reykjavik for a starting price of £99.
The budget carrier will start services from Gatwick to Boston Logan International on March 27 and to Washington DC on June 4. They both include a connection in Iceland’s capital Reykjavik.
The airline will offer one way fares from an introductory £99 including taxes, although checking in a 20kg bag will cost £39. Passengers will be allowed only 5kg of hand luggage, adding another 7kg costs £22.
Boston flights depart Gatwick at 12.20 and arrive in the US at 17.30 with a connection in Iceland of less than an hour. The return leaves at 18.55 and arrives at 10.50, but the connecting time is 2 hours 40 minutes in the middle of the night.
Flights to Washington leave Gatwick on the same 12.20 departure and arrive at 17.55, again with a short connection. The return departs at 19.25 and has a 90-minute connection in Reykjavik before the 10.50 arrival at Gatwick.
Wow Air chief executive Skúli Mogensen said: “This is just the beginning of our plans to transform low-cost transatlantic flights. Not only are we providing flights to the USA for less than a standard London to Edinburgh train ticket, we’re opening the market to a whole new market of travellers who might previously not have been able to afford transatlantic travel.
“The low-cost airline market is scrambling to offer cheap flights to North America and I’m happy that we‘ll be amongst the first to do so and at a price point that will no doubt cause our rivals to re-evaluate their plans.”
The route to Boston was announced in 2013 and due to launch in spring this year, but was put back to 2015.
Flights from Iceland to the US will be operated using an Extended Range Airbus A321, with the Gatwick leg on Wow’s existing A320 fleet.