CLEVELAND, Ohio - There was a celebratory mood at Cleveland Hopkins late Thursday night, as the airport welcomed its first transatlantic service in nearly a decade.
Wow Air Flight 113, from Reykjavik to Cleveland, landed at Hopkins a few minutes before its scheduled 11:30 p.m. arrival, showered by a water cannon from two fire trucks as it pulled into the gate, a tradition for inaugural flights.
The first flight from Cleveland to Reykjavik, meanwhile, left Hopkins about 30 minutes late and was scheduled to land this morning in Iceland at about 6:50 a.m. EST.
Many travelers, gathered around gate A11 before boarding, said they were using the new flight as an easy, inexpensive way to get to multiple destinations in Europe. On the first flight:
* Two Cleveland-area college students, on their way to study abroad in Madrid.
* A family of four from Yellow Springs, Ohio, traveling to Israel.
* A couple from St. Louis, on their way to Paris, who flew to Cleveland on Southwest to catch the inaugural Wow flight because it was cheaper than flying from Missouri.
Passengers were treated to cake, balloons and music, plus speeches from airport and city personnel, thrilled with the new service.
"It opens up a new world to us," said Airport Director Robert Kennedy. "People who didn't think they could fly to Europe in the past now can."
Wow Air flight crews -- both incoming and outgoing -- pose for a photo on the A concourse at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport. (Susan Glaser, The Plain Dealer)
Wow, founded in 2011, is known for its rock-bottom fares, with rates as low as $99 one way. (But be careful: baggage and other fees can add substantially to the price.)
Wow is the first of two Iceland-based airlines to start service from Cleveland this month. Icelandair begins flying from Cleveland on May 16. Both offer connections to dozens of cities within Europe.
The two airlines are the first to fly from Cleveland to Europe since 2009, when Continental Airlines canceled nonstop service to London.
Wow's flight, on a 200-seat Airbus A321, was nearly full, with 190 seats occupied.
Among the inaugural passengers were Carol Mata and Matt Gordon, who drove to Cleveland from Cincinnati to catch the flight. They're headed to Barcelona. Mata said she paid less for this flight - about $330 round-trip - than she did to fly to Florida earlier this year.
After their 12 days in Europe, she and Gordon are flying home directly to Cincinnati, where Wow is starting service on May 9.
Both Wow and Icelandair are expanding rapidly in the United States this year, adding service to eight new cities. Cleveland is one of six cities in the U.S. that will host both airlines.
The airport estimates that the new flights will bring 30,000 visitors to the city annually.
The inaugural flight to Cleveland from Reykjavik was about half full, according to the airport. Representatives from Destination Cleveland greeted arriving passengers with a goodie bag of items, including sunglasses, bottled water and a map.
Among the visitors to Cleveland: Five women from London in town for a wedding in Chardon; and four travel writers from Europe, touring Cleveland for the next several days.
Inbound passengers also included Paul Camper of Brunswick, returning home from a trip to Reykjavik and London. In the past, he said, he's driven to Pittsburgh, Toronto and other cities to find cheap fares to Europe. Now, he said, the cheap fares have finally arrived in Cleveland.
Related: How Cleveland Hopkins International Airport scored two routes to Iceland in one week