New Airbus A330-300 will serve route to San Francisco.
WOW air, Iceland’s ultra-low-cost transatlantic airline, have named their newest aircraft TF-GAY in a show of support to the GLBT community. The brand new Airbus 330-300 will enter service on the airline’s route from Reykjavik (KEF) to San Francisco (SFO), a city synonymous with advancing LGBT rights in the US, when it begins on 9 June.
WOW air is known for taking a humorous approach to their aircraft registrations, referring to their fleet as a family. Airline founder and CEO Skuli Mogensen says the naming of TF-GAY in support of the LGBT community is in keeping with the company’s ethos.
“WOW air is an airline for the people and one of our most important goals is to lower fares in order to enable everybody to travel the world and get to know different cultures. We wholeheartedly support queer people’s fight for rights. Just as we support equal rights for everybody, no matter their gender, religion, ethnicity or culture. When we announced we were going to start flying to San Francisco, one of our pilots approached me and suggested the TF-GAY registry. I immediately thought it was a great idea and fitted with our approach to using words relating to family members in the spirit of inclusiveness.
“Furthermore the name fits perfectly into this concept of ours to create a modern family out of our air planes from the names we give them,” he points out, referring to the company’s tradition of giving its planes names that represent family members; that is TF-MOM, TF-DAD, TF-SIS, TF-BRO, TF-SON and TF-KID. “WOW is basically MOM upside down and everybody loves their mom! Since day one, we’ve emphasised joy and friendliness in our services because we want everybody to feel welcome in the WOW family. And we think TF-GAY fits right in with our modern family concept.”
WOW air’s route to San Francisco is the first of two new Californian services this year with flights to Los Angeles (LAX) to begin a week later on 15 June, both currently available to book from just £245 one way. Flights currently depart for Reykjavik (KEF) from London Gatwick with routes to be added from Bristol in May and from Edinburgh in July. From the airline’s Icelandic hub, the Californian routes will then be serviced by the new, wide-bodied A330’s – the largest aircraft to be used by an Icelandic airline with a single-class configuration that can carry 340 passengers.
Launched in November 2011, WOW air will, by July, connect 28 destinations across Europe and North America with the Icelandic capital. WOW air’s annual passenger capacity will more than double in 2016 to over 1.8 million, up from approximately 840,000 in 2015.
Vicky is the co-founder of TravelDailyNews Media Network where she is the Editor-in Chief. She is also responsible for the daily operation and the financial policy. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Tourism Business Administration from the Technical University of Athens and a Master in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Wales.
She has many years of both academic and industrial experience within the travel industry. She has written/edited numerous articles in various tourism magazines.
