Icelandic discounter Play Airways closed its doorways Monday after struggling to show a revenue since launching 4 years in the past.
In a assertion Monday, Play’s board of administrators blamed the closure on weak efficiency and ticket gross sales in latest months, “following detrimental media protection of its operations.”
Vacationers affected by Play’s shutdown are left with few flight choices. Icelandair will add an additional round-trip between Keflavik Airport (KEF) and Copenhagen Airport (CPH) on Oct. 1 to help stranded clients however is “not providing particular fares for Play passengers.”
Germany’s Condor is providing “particular rescue fares” to Play clients flying between the U.S. and both Berlin Brandenburg Airport (BER), Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG) or Václav Havel Airport Prague (PRG) by Nov. 30.
Condor serves seven U.S. locations, together with Boston Logan Worldwide Airport (BOS) and New York’s John F. Kennedy Worldwide Airport (JFK), schedule information from aviation analytics agency Cirium reveals. The airline doesn’t serve Play’s final U.S. gateway, Baltimore/Washington Worldwide Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI).
Vacationers who booked Play flights with a premium bank card, just like the Chase Sapphire Reserve® (see charges and charges), could possibly declare some compensation by the cardboard’s journey insurance coverage for any prices incurred whereas finishing their journey.
Wow Air 2.0
A variety of former executives from Wow Air, a earlier Icelandic finances airline that shut down in 2019, launched Play in 2021. Play’s technique was similar to Wow’s: Provide dirt-cheap, no-frills airfare that comes with charges for every part from seat assignments to water on transatlantic journeys by way of KEF.
When Birgir Jonsson, Play’s first CEO, was requested in 2021 in regards to the parallels between failed Wow and Play, he took the comparability as a praise.
“Everybody has realized loads,” he stated in an interview with Skift on the time. “What occurred at Wow Air [is] they merely grew too quick,” and he promised that Play wouldn’t repeat that mistake.
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And true to his phrase, Play didn’t develop rapidly below Jonsson’s management, which led to 2024. The airline added planes slowly, and its fleet peaked at simply 10 Airbus A320neo-family plane.
The difficulty Play confronted was a modified transatlantic market for the reason that days of Wow. Main carriers grew out of the coronavirus pandemic with primary economic system airfares that also had all of the frills of a big community airline — a technique that focused Play’s potential buyer base. This is without doubt one of the points afflicting Spirit Airways, which is at present restructuring below chapter safety.
Additionally for Play, new planes just like the A321XLR opened new routes to second-tier cities on either side of the Atlantic, lowering the necessity for a switch in Iceland. Put up-coronavirus peak, vacationers are more and more prepared to spend on extra premium choices — one thing Play didn’t provide.
In an try to enhance its fortunes, Play unveiled a revised marketing strategy in 2024 that shifted its focus to connecting Iceland to leisure locations in Europe and fewer on transatlantic connecting flyers. And, in June, the airline confirmed it could finish all transatlantic flying and exit its three U.S. locations — BWI, BOS and New York Stewart Worldwide Airport (SWF) — by October.
Play’s final U.S. flight was scheduled to be Oct. 24 from BWI — which was fittingly additionally its first U.S. vacation spot — however now it is stopping all flights, efficient instantly.
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