Fly from London to Boston or Washington DC for just £99

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The East Coast of the US is just a short hop across the pond but high air fares often keep many UK passengers closer to home.

However, Icelandic airline WOW air has launched £99 flights from London to Boston and Washington DC. The too-good-to-be-true price, which includes taxes, is being offered by the budget carrier on a selected number of one-way journeys available in 2015.

Passengers can travel from London Gatwick to Boston Logan International Airport from 27 March next year and Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport from 4 June.

However, the flights are not direct, with a stopover at Keflavík International Airport, in Iceland’s capital Reykjavik. Additionally, there is a booking fee of £8.98 and it costs a further £39 to check in a bag, so customers are realistically looking at a minimum price of £146.98.

The flights from Reykjavik to the USA will be operated using Airbus A321 extended range aircraft, while WOW air's existing Airbus A320 fleet will carry passengers from London to Iceland on the first leg of the journey.

Founded in November 2011, the airline made its inaugural flight to Paris on 31 May 2012 and began flying to London at the start of 2014. The Boston flight will operate five times a week and the Washington DC one four times.

Skúli Mogensen, chief executive of WOW air, said: "This is just the beginning of our plans to transform low-cost transatlantic flights.

"We’re opening up the market to a whole new market of travellers who might previously not have been able to afford transatlantic travel.

"The low-cost airline market is scrambling to offer cheap flights to North America and I’m happy that we‘ll be among the first to do so and at a price point that will no doubt cause our rivals to re-evaluate their plans."

WOW air is not the first company to offer long-haul flights at short-haul prices. In July, Norwegian Air began offering low-cost flights to the Big Apple, Los Angeles and Fort Lauderdale from just £149.

The airliner operates three flights a week to New York, as well as twice-weekly flights to both Los Angeles and Fort Lauderdale.