Icelandic discounter Play Airways will finish all flights to the U.S. in October, exiting the market 3 1/2 years after betting that transatlantic flyers would flock to its low fares.
Play will finish flights from Keflavik Worldwide Airport (KEF) to New York Stewart Worldwide Airport (SWF) on Sept. 1, to Boston Logan Worldwide Airport (BOS) on Sept. 15 and to Baltimore/Washington Worldwide Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI) on Oct. 24, in line with the airline’s web site.
The airline will, as an alternative, concentrate on flying leisure vacationers between Iceland and Europe, and it’ll basically attempt downsizing by leasing six of its 10 Airbus A320neo household planes to different airways, an investor presentation on Tuesday confirmed.
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Vacationers nonetheless have choices between Iceland and Play’s former U.S. locations. Icelandair flies from KEF to BWI and BOS, schedule knowledge from aviation analytics agency Cirium exhibits. And, whereas it doesn’t fly to SWF (on the northern fringes of the New York Metropolis metro space), it does join KEF to 2 of New York Metropolis’s main airports: Newark Liberty Worldwide Airport (EWR) and New York John F. Kennedy Worldwide Airport (JFK).
Play’s exit from the U.S. market is a part of a strategic pivot to spice up profitability. The provider advised buyers Tuesday that the North American market had “modified considerably” because it started flights in April 2022. The adjustments embrace further transatlantic capability from legacy carriers, new nonstops on longer-range narrow-body planes just like the Airbus A321XLR, and a common shift in vacationers’ need for extra premium choices.
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Play follows the everyday price range airline enterprise mannequin with discount base fares and costs for all different facilities, from assigned seats to checked luggage. Its most premium onboard providing is a restricted variety of extra-legroom seats.
The airline took off in 2021 as one thing of a reboot of the failed Icelandic discounter Wow Air. Then-CEO Birgir Jonsson embraced the comparisons, touting Iceland’s sturdy tourism market and the necessity for a price range different to Icelandair. Play wouldn’t repeat the errors of Wow, he mentioned, by moderating development.
When Play landed in Baltimore in April 2022, Jonsson mentioned demand for its first U.S. route was coming in as deliberate, with most vacationers reserving connecting itineraries to Europe.
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The investor presentation paints a unique image. Play’s North American flights solely turned a revenue within the second and third quarters of 2023, they usually misplaced cash all through the remainder of their existence, in line with the airline.
Einar Orn Olafsson, who changed Jonsson as Play’s CEO in March 2024, advised TPG in Could that he was targeted on getting the airline onto stable monetary footing. North American development would sluggish as European flights had been extra worthwhile, however the provider nonetheless noticed alternatives within the U.S. and Canada.
By the top of 2024, Play’s pivot away from the U.S. and to Europe grew to become evident. The airline ended flights to Dulles Worldwide Airport (IAD) in December after which to John C. Munro Hamilton Worldwide Airport (YHM) close to Toronto in April 2025.
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