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The news made public Monday came just five months after Iceland's budget carrier Wow Air began its operations here and brought back transatlantic travel after a 15-year hiatus. The airport lost nonstop flights to Europe in 2003 when American Airlines halted flights to London after absorbing the bankrupt Trans World Airlines and ceasing local hub operations.

"We’re disappointed because the response from customers across the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ region was strong and we were told we were one of the airline’s top performing markets in the Midwest that were added last spring," the airport said in a statement Monday. 

To get Wow here, ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ area governmental agencies offered $800,000 in incentives, $600,000 from the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ County Port Authority and $200,000 from the airport, to help market the new route, plus waiving landing fees for 18 months that could total $392,000. But the airport said in its statement that the airline will not meet the criteria for airport incentives because it's ceasing service in January.

No reason was given for the discontinuation of the flights and Wow Air representatives had not responded to requests for comment as of late Monday afternoon. But media reports elsewhere have cited serious business problems at Wow Air and about its future.

The Icelandic  reported this month that Wow Air's operating environment, like other European airlines, has worsened recently largely due to competition and rising oil prices. The situation is dire enough that a government task force has been formed to create an emergency plan to respond should Wow Air and Icelandair go bankrupt.

This summer, the newspaper reported  from July 2017 through June before interest and tax. 

The August announcement of the return of regular nonstop transatlantic service from Lambert was widely heralded by local leaders as a key step forward for the region and the airport, which had weeks earlier lost out to Nashville, Tenn., on landing a new British Airways flight to London. That airline has made it clear in talks with Lambert in recent years that the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ market must support the sale of lucrative business-class seats for it to come here.

Wow offered an opposite, bare-bones approach to flying — cheap seats with extra charges, including for luggage and food. Deals such as $99 flights to Iceland have been offered, and $149 connecting flights to Amsterdam, Berlin, Copenhagen, Dublin, Frankfurt and Paris. And it offered a promotion selling one-way service from Lambert to Delhi, India, through Iceland for $199.

It began flights from Lambert on May 17 and made a two-year commitment to ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½, one of four Midwest cities where Wow added service at the time. Another was Detroit, where flights to Iceland still are being offered, but flights from the other two, Cleveland and Cincinnati, are temporarily halting in a couple weeks. 

 that Wow Air would pause service from there after its Oct. 27 flight to Iceland through the spring. A Wow spokeswoman blamed the hiatus on operational, logistic and commercial reasons. The newspaper also reported that Wow flights from other airports were set to cease after October, including from Cleveland, Dallas-Fort Worth and New York’s JFK International Airport.

The loss of nonstop flights to Europe comes as the city explores leasing Lambert to a private operator. It's a controversial effort that pits those who see such a partnership as a way for ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ to keep ownership of its airport while bringing more money to city coffers against critics who say such a move isn't needed given recent growth at the airport and who cite concerns about conflicts of interest  — Francis Slay initiated the move to look at privatization while serving as mayor, and has since been hired by a Spanish firm considering a bid on such a lease.

The airport said Monday it will "continue to explore new opportunities" for nonstop international service.