urbanSTL

Yeah, was hoping for something bigger—but more flights and a new airline is still a plus. Hopefully they will do well, such that they'll add some Caribbean flights, and maybe Costa Rica.

^ Strong agree with you jshank. My AP US Gov teacher always said: "Statistics are like bikinis: what they reveal is interesting; what they don't reveal is even more interesting."

I'm glad I'm not the only one that finds it super shady that former mayor Slay is now part of the team pushing for airport privatization after he was the one that initiated it right before he left office. Behind a paywall, but: https://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/new ... ct-to.html

Arrived at 6:30 PM last evening (Thursday) from reykjavik and T2 was crazy busy. Not only did three international flights arrive at the same time - so the line in customs/immigration area was long. There were at least enough agents on duty and were keeping the extremely long line moving. Global Entry point with the machines was moving quickly too. But, that being said, the carousel and baggage from these three arrivals at once was completely jammed and it took about an hour and a half to get baggage and being stuck in that baggage area before customs was quite tedious.

From Frankfurt to Reykjavik our WOW flight was on time. It was mostly full - a few seats open. The staff and crew on board were great. We really like WOW's excellent on board service. They are extremely professional and dressed to impress on all flights.

We had a short layover in Reykjavik for 2 hours. Reykjavik KEF airport is expanding and under major construction. But overall is very nice.

From Reykjavik to STL our flight was, again, completely sold out and on a larger A321. We did the "big seats" which are just two seats together on both sides and WOW's "first-class" or WOW Premium selection. The seats were better than any first-class seats I have had on Alaska, American (for sure) or Iberia. Very comfy and nice. WOW's planes are all immaculate and fresh. Our entire group of 18 were extremely satisfied and thought WOW was the way to fly to EU.

As for STL T2 Customs/Immigrations Arrivals hall... they need to already expand it. It is nice and fairly large but WOW seems to be really taking off and busy.

I like to watch, ask and listen to other flyers and this is what I took away from our R/T STL-KEF-FRA flights:

1) At LEAST a third of the 200+ people on our flights home were flying to/from Frankfurt. Both STL natives and German natives.
2) The people sitting next to us on the Reykjavik to STL flight were from Tel Aviv flying to STL to see relatives.
3) There was a group of about 10 people who were coming to STL from Ireland on the return flight.
4) Overall, most were impressed with WOW service.
5) Our luggage transferred completely fine R/T.
6) There were a few people from Iceland traveling to STL for vacation holiday.
7) Lots of families traveling on WOW to/from Iceland and other places.

So that being said, I would say more than 70% of our Thursday Reykjavik to STL flight had connected in Reykjavik to come to STL. Other airlines are going to take note of that fr sure. I truly believe that WOW has opened the door to EU for STLians and those coming here from other countries. Easy Easy connection in Reykjavik and a quick 6-7 hour flight to STL nonstop is very nice. WOW is banking on the connections to STL here - not just Iceland travelers... and it seems like they are doing it well.

Apparently WOW will stop serving Tel Aviv altogether in October. Apparently the route was doing well, but they just couldn't justify the high airport fees, the low utilization of the aircraft (an A321neo, no less. It'd sit at TLV for something like 16 hours in order to make the connections work), and the fact that the flight from KEF was so long and costly (one of the longest A321 flights in the world apparently, at ~7 hours long). Shame to see that connection go away so quickly.

Not to take away from your post, which is probably spot-on, but I was essentially paraphrasing what others said in the a.net topic about the likely route cut. Just mentioned it here since the flight seemed to be getting at least some traction on the local end, so it's a shame to see it go away so soon.