WOW Airlines closed

Gerhardt

Gerhardt

En-Route
Joined
Aug 20, 2006
Messages
4,534
Display Name
Display name:
Gerhardt
I'm always amazed at the business that will continue to sell people services to be rendered later right up to the minute the doors close for the last time.


upload_2019-3-28_10-40-17.png
 
Gerhardt said:
I'm always amazed at the business that will continue to sell people services to be rendered later right up to the minute the doors close for the last time.
Click to expand...

The closing of the business was probably top secret and none of the hourly workers knew about it until the last second. I have worked for a couple small commuter airlines that we learned about the closing when we reported for work and found the doors locked and a sign in the window saying ''out of business''. (and no paychecks)

I was a partner in a business that had too many partners. I learned that it was sold when I found strangers going through my office. That was a legal mess.
 
Gerhardt said:
I'm always amazed at the business that will continue to sell people services to be rendered later right up to the minute the doors close for the last time.
Click to expand...

If they had stopped selling sooner they would have closed sooner.
 
We took WOW! from Dallas to Iceland, and Iceland to Frankfurt. Great flights, excellent service (no movies though).

Sorry to hear they're gone.
 
There was a case in the Pan Am ultimate shutdown where the flight crew defied management and flew the last flight anyway even though the company said to stay at the gate.
 
market says, yall paid too little for the privilege of flying to iceland. no free lunch. sayonara baby.
 
flyingron said:
There was a case in the Pan Am ultimate shutdown where the flight crew defied management and flew the last flight anyway even though the company said to stay at the gate.
Click to expand...

In May, 1982, Braniff's last flight was their non-stop 747 DFW-Honolulu.

Aboard Flight 501, the airline's flagship Dallas-Honolulu service, the flight crew checked out the famous "Great Pumpkin", N601BN. Taxiing out to the runway, the crew noticed N606BN, the last remaining 747SP in the fleet, on final. All three crew members thought that was odd - N606BN was supposed to be in Miami getting ready to fly to Buenos Aries. Earlier in the day, Flight 601, non-stop to London, was cancelled and the aircraft scheduled to operate that service, N602BN, was towed from the terminal to the maintenance hangars on the west side of DFW. Maintenance could find nothing wrong. Putting two and two together, the crew of Flight 501 departed DFW for Honolulu, but quickly made every attempt to find out what was happening. 501's Flight Engineer was a ham radio buff and was able to raise a friend in Denver using the aircraft's ADF equipment [Spike's comment: I assume this was actually HF]. The friend promised he'd check it out and get back. A few minutes later the friend's voice came across the radio. "I don't know how to tell you this, but it's all over the news here - Braniff is shutting down." Looking at each other in disbelief, the Captain asked the First Officer to see if he could get an AM station on the ADF. He finally succeeded in raising a station in Los Angeles, which echoed the Flight Engineer's friend - Braniff was closing up shop. The radio station reported that 501 was diverting to LAX, which surprised the crew, as that was news to them. The Captain ordered the Flight Engineer to contact operations in Dallas. Operations told the crew that it was up to them to proceed to Hawaii or land in Los Angeles. The Captain elected to go to Honolulu as the plane was full of fuel and a lot of people who paid to go to Hawaii.

After confirmation of the shutdown was received by 501's crew, the Captain rang for the lead Flight Attendant. He asked her to have a seat on the jumpseat and then said: "Well, I've got good news and I have bad news. The good news is that you'll be home tonight, the bad news is that we're working the rest of the trip for free - the airline is shutting down." The Flight Attendant paused for a minute and replied: "Is that all? I can get another job - I thought you were going to tell me that you were putting this big son of a ***** in the water!"

Flight 501 arrived on schedule in Honolulu and took on passengers for the return to DFW as Flight 502. Just before sunset, Flight 502 turned over Diamondhead and was handed off by Honolulu Tower to Departure Control: "Braniff 502, Contact Honolulu Departure - have a nice trip." And with that, Braniff was gone forever from the Hawaiian skies. At about the same time, Howard Putnam and Phil Guthrie arrived at the home of Judge John Flowers in Fort Worth and officially sought protection for Braniff under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. The reason for waiting was to ensure that Braniff's planes were all stateside so that they could not be seized by foreign governments. The crew that had brought N601BN to Hawaii were dead-heading back to Dallas now, and they began to partake of the bar that had been opened for all those aboard. They talked about their history with the airline, the times when Braniff was the darling of the industry and how it had all come apart.

Over eastern New Mexico, Flight 502 began to throttle back and begin its descent into DFW. Just after dawn, the crew contacted DFW Approach for clearance into the airport. Lining up on final for Runway 17R, the ghostly images of Braniff aircraft became visible on the abandoned tarmac around Braniff's Terminal 2W. The wheels touched the DFW runway for the last time, and N601BN headed for an open gate at a once-bustling terminal. It took several minutes for a hastily-gathered ground crew to arrive and park the aircraft. Flight 502's passengers emerged from the jet way into a terminal silent but for the TV crews.

A Flight Attendant aboard Flight 502 walked out of the deserted terminal and to her car in the parking lot. Driving to a convenience store nearby as the rain began to fall, she rolled down the window and placed a few coins into a newspaper machine. The newspaper headline brought it all home for her - "Braniff Suspends Operations." She cradled her head in her hands and began to cry. It was over. The most dynamic airline in American history - once darling of the industry, and the envy of its competition - was no more.
 
Gerhardt said:
I'm always amazed at the business that will continue to sell people services to be rendered later right up to the minute the doors close for the last time.
Click to expand...
It almost seems like fraud.
 
@SCCutler - That's interesting. I always associated Braniff with DAL. My ex's father flew for them in both iterations, and then for United until retirement.
 
Being married to an Icelandic girl, we have no love for any airline but Iceland Air. :) From what we gather, !woW was spawned from a temper tantrum. No code share, interline, or similar agreements, kinda sets things up for a hard go of it. The Icelandic natives we know were never customers, a pride thing. We met plenty of tourists and passers through that regretted their decision to fly on !woW. Typical ULCC styled complaints.

The boss is kind of a character there according to news articles, and compared to Sir Branson in some circles. I don't know him or their culture so I'm no judge.

A shame to see the employees get the shaft as they probably had high buy in.

I hate to have an air of negativity, but the writing was on the wall for some time. Now the poor owner of these purple planes need to paint!
 
I don’t hate to see these ULCC carriers fail. They drag down the entire industry. You only harm everyone by selling a service for less than it costs.
 
If you look closely, you can see a For Sale sign in the co-pilot’s side window...maybe...if you squint.

C4E1C7BD-E715-4373-AF9E-AC0B3507F87D.jpeg
 
hindsight2020 said:
market says, yall paid too little for the privilege of flying to iceland. no free lunch. sayonara baby.
Click to expand...

Just the latest reminder commercial aviation is a very tough business. Airlines are like running the produce section of a supermarket - they have a time limited, perishable product. Every time a plane takes off with an empty seat it's like spoiled lettuce...that revenue is lost forever.

The tarmac is littered with the corpses of failed airline companies.
Some of them lasted a remarkably long time before succumbing. Remember Sir Freddie Laker and Laker Airlines?


How about Don Burr and People Express Airlines?

Some of them just deserved to go out of business. Decades ago when I was working for Big Oil I had to make numerous trips to our campus in the The Swamp (Houston). Suffering the indignities of Frank Lorenzo's Continental Airlines at the time was enough to make anyone have a hate-on for that outfit.
 
Last edited:
Zeldman said:
I have worked for a couple small commuter airlines that we learned about the closing when we reported for work and found the doors locked and a sign in the window saying ''out of business''. (and no paychecks)
Click to expand...

That happened to me once. Came in to work Monday after Christmas, door chained, CLOSED sign on the door. Called my boss, said the VC had backed out, we're shutdown, you lose any vacation in the bank (2 weeks for me), you won't get your paycheck for the last two weeks worked, and your healthcare expires at the end of the month. And after that I never heard from my boss again...

GRG55 said:
Remember Sir Freddie Laker and Laker Airlines?
Click to expand...

Yup, rode a Laker DC-10 to London and back way back when...
 
Bill Jennings said:
That happened to me once. Came in to work Monday after Christmas, door chained, CLOSED sign on the door. Called my boss, said the VC had backed out, we're shutdown, you lose any vacation in the bank (2 weeks for me), you won't get your paycheck for the last two weeks worked, and your healthcare expires at the end of the month. And after that I never heard from my boss again...
Click to expand...

That does bite and then leaves a bad taste in the mouth.
 
Zeldman said:
The closing of the business was probably top secret and none of the hourly workers knew about it until the last second. I have worked for a couple small commuter airlines that we learned about the closing when we reported for work and found the doors locked and a sign in the window saying ''out of business''.
Click to expand...

Had that happen as well at a now-defunct 135 outfit. Got an email one evening saying we are shutdown at midnight. Don't bother coming in for your shift tomorrow. Got my regular pay, but lost my accrued PTO time which was substantial. In retrospect, it became obvious the company management knew well ahead of time they were going to shut down and go BK. Lots of suppliers lost lots of cash.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top