The airline's flight from Detroit to Iceland were popular among travelers.
Meghann Witmer and Nikkolas Pigg of Plymouth were about to climb a glacier in Iceland on Thursday morning when they learned the airline that brought them there — WOW Air — had gone belly up.
"My reaction was no, that can’t be right. ... There was panic," Witmer said.
The Icelandic budget airline collapsed under its financial problems Thursday, leading it to ground flights and leave passengers stranded across two continents.
WOW Air, a small carrier that specialized in ultra-cheap travel between the United States and Europe, told passengers there would be no further flights and advised them to check with other airlines for ways to reach their destinations.
The airline flew to cities including Detroit, Washington, New York, Paris, London and its Reykjavik hub.
In Europe, Reykjavik-bound planes from seven cities —– Amsterdam, Dublin, Paris, Brussels, Berlin, Frankfurt and Copenhagen – did not take off Thursday. One airplane from WOW was grounded as collateral by Iceland’s airport operator, which reportedly has a $16 million claim for unpaid landing fees against the airline.
Travelers like Witmer and Pigg were left scrambling to find alternative ways to get home. The engaged couple was in Iceland to celebrate Witmer's 40th birthday.
"I immediately started calling every airline I could think of," Witmer said. "Delta told us they couldn’t get us home until Monday, and it would be about $3,000. Prices for flights went up immediately."
Ultimately, Witmer and Pigg were able to get a deal from Icelandair — $250 tickets for a Saturday flight from Reykjavik to Boston.
Witmer learned about WOW's bankruptcy from an article in The Guardian she saw on her phone.
"WOW still hasn’t contacted us," she said several hours later.
Tyler Balogh, 19, of Southgate is stuck in Poland, where he's playing in a hockey tournament that ends Sunday.
"I'm still enjoying my trip here, but it’s kind of scary and unfortunate that we don’t have a flight home," he said. "I don’t know when I’ll be home. I don’t know when I’ll be able to get back to work."
Detroit Metropolitan Airport officials said WOW Air's flights from Detroit to Iceland began in April 2018 and became very popular. The airport is now working to secure replacement service to Iceland.
"Reykjavik moved from Detroit’s 55th largest European destination to 5th, after just a few months of WOW service," the airport said in a statement. "Some months saw traffic between Detroit and Iceland jump as much as 2,500% from a year earlier.
"As WOW’s financial situation deteriorated, Detroit became one of the few remaining airports where WOW operated in the United States, on the strength of that Detroit customer support. Now, all WOW flights have ended, which is unfortunate for the airline and the passengers who are stranded in Iceland or who already paid for trips on WOW."
WOW's troubles have put a spotlight on how difficult it is to make budget travel across the Atlantic work financially because the biggest source of profits on these routes are higher-paying business travelers. Rival Norwegian Air Shuttle, which has also struggled to make profits, recently started offering “premium” budget travel to capture some of that market.
Egill Bjarnason of Associated Press contributed to this report.