- Icelandic budget airline Wow Air abruptly announced its collapse and canceled all flights on Thursday.
- Videos taken at airports around the world show passengers at airports frustrated by the sudden shutdown, and the realisation that they are stranded.
- “I’ve passed the stage of anger and now I’m just afraid,” one passenger, Jennifer Shreve, told Ireland’s RTÉ News at Dublin airport.
Wow Air, the Icelandic budget airline, abruptly announced its collapse and canceled all flight operations on Thursday. Many passengers didn’t find out about it until they arrived at the airport.
Videos posted on social media showed dozens of passengers at airport terminals crowding around airport tills, trying to find out what was going on.
Some Wow Air passengers told Business Insider that they received no warning about their flight cancelations until Wow Air formally declared their closure in Thursday morning statement.
Read more: Hundreds of people are stranded and freaking out after Wow Air collapsed
This video, taken at Toronto Pearson Airport and published by local news site blogTO, shows passengers passing instructions down the line because there were too many people to hear the initial announcement.
It's chaos at the Toronto airport after low budget airline @wow_air shuts down and cancels all flights #Toronto #WowAir https://t.co/7UgQpYvhqS pic.twitter.com/K835SLCC6F
— blogTO (@blogTO) March 28, 2019
This video, also taken at Toronto airport, showed one passenger shouting in frustration as dozens of passengers surrounded the airline's till. "We're massively inconvenienced," the man can be heard saying.
Tempers were high last night at #yyz #wowair. I can’t post anymore of this due to the swearing!
The flight staff had just informed us they were in the same position as us. pic.twitter.com/tJjcNbVBku— actrvlgrl (@travelgirlto) March 28, 2019
The following video shows a passenger and his family who are stuck in Reykjavik Airport after their connecting flight to Frankfurt was canceled.
"We have to go back home to India tomorrow," he told ITV News. "If we don't go to Frankfurt today, we'll miss our next flight. We were checking the flights, they're $800, $900 ... it's too expensive now. We can't afford to buy those tickets. We'll have to do it, but it's so much pain."
Passengers are left stranded after @wow_air cancelled all flightshttps://t.co/6nDYb6Xim7 pic.twitter.com/3rISgP4NKV
— ITV News (@itvnews) March 28, 2019
Jennier Shreve, a tourist from the US, also told Ireland's RTÉ News at Dublin airport on Thursday: "I've passed the stage of anger and now I'm just afraid."
"We were really looking forward to the holiday": Travel plans of Wow Air passengers left up in the air | https://t.co/02CTLagxIA pic.twitter.com/cG52tULO6L
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) March 28, 2019
The airline was still accepting payments for new flights and extra baggage allowance up to two hours before it announced its closure, passengers told Business Insider.