WOW air has confirmed that it is downsizing its fleet by two Airbus A320 aircraft and two Airbus A330 aircraft in cooperation with its lessors. Wow says that this is “a part of necessary restructuring of the airline and to ensure maximum utility of its remaining fleet”. Adding that this restructuring “will not impact WOW air´s current plans to fly to India”.
In a letter to bondholders, chief executive Skuli Mogensen, said that the company had suffered “significant bad publicity” about its financial health that had impacted its sales and credit position and as a result, he said, “the Q4 results are materially worse than originally anticipated”.
He added that the airline had been close to finalising a sale-leaseback agreement until recently but that the deal had now been cancelled “resulting in USD 25 million less inflow than originally planned”.
The negative publicity of WOW’s financial position was given more force after Primera collapsed in October, Mogensen said that due to the continuous negative events, “all the company's lessors, creditors and authorities have been monitoring the situation even closer and demanded stricter payment terms then before further putting pressure on the company's cash flow”.
Finally, Mogensen attributed losses to the surge in oil costs and although the rise has since retreated, he said that the company's position “has not recovered accordingly”.
WOW Air is now seeking additional funding and Mogensen states in the letter that the company has received interest from a number of parties including Icelandair.