Interview: Wow Air CEO on Being Different in the Low-Cost Carrier Space

As the battle among European low-cost carriers has heated up, Icelandic upstart Wow Air has set its sights across the Atlantic, hoping to earn the trust of American flyers. Wow Air founder and CEO Skúli Mogensen has worked to expand the long-haul airline's routes across Europe and to underserved North American cities like Boston and Montreal since the company's launch in 2011. The airline also runs Icelandic travel agency Wow Travel, which sells cheap tours, car rentals and hotel stays through the company's booking site. Wow Air recently named outspoken former Spirit Airlines chief Ben Baldanza to its board of directors after his January departure from the U.S. low-cost leader. The addition brings an experienced hand to Wow Air's efforts in North America, at a time when legacy carriers are experimenting with dicing up fares to move closer to a low-cost model for many routes. Skift sat down in Berlin last week with Mogensen to discuss Wow Air's push into North America, competition in Europe among low-cost carriers, and which amenities are most important to the low-cost flyer. Skift: Wow Air has been expanding rapidly in the U.S. and Europe. How do you assess the company's success so far? Mogensen: We like to think we are pioneering the low-cost, long-haul model, and so far, so good. It's been working extremely well for us. We just released our February numbers, we added 122 percent capacity year-over-year. We still managed to have 89 percent average load on every single flight. This is in the middle of the winter, which historically has been a very tough period. I think that's a testimony to the fact that the model works, and what we are seeing is that we're r