The founder and several top employees of the Icelandic airline Wow Air, which went bankrupt at the end of March, are considering starting over.

This is what Skuli Mogensen, who was also CEO after founding the company in 2011, tells the Icelandic newspaper Frettabladid.

In a first round of financing, the new company aims to raise $40 million, according to an investor presentation seen by the newspaper.

For 12 weeks, the new low-cost airline intends to perform leasing services for a major European airline operator and then buy up Wow Air's bankruptcy estate, including the brand name, in order to resume flight operations towards the end of June with routes to 13 destinations in Europe and the USA from its home airport Keflavik in the Icelandic capital Reykjavik.

Skuli Mogensen and the employees will own 51 percent of the new company, while the investors' 40 million gives a total holding of the remaining 49 percent. The company expects a positive cash flow in the second quarter of next year. This will be made possible, among other things, by the employees taking a 30 percent salary cut during the first year of operation, according to the presentation.

The constellation states that they have learned a lesson from what caused Wow Air's demise. Among other things, the company will focus more on sales of ancillary services and on driving sales from its own website, according to the newspaper.

The company filed for bankruptcy on March 28 after the company was unable to pay leasing fees to aircraft lessors totaling $300 million.

Source: Nyhetsbyrån Direkt