Icelandic discounter Play Airlines closed its doors Monday after struggling to turn a profit since launching four years ago.
In a statement Monday, Play’s board of directors blamed the closure on weak performance and ticket sales in recent months, “following negative media coverage of its operations.”
Travelers affected by Play’s shutdown are left with few flight options. Icelandair said in a statement that it is “not offering special fares for Play passengers” but will increase seats in the discounter’s markets for stranded passengers.
Travelers who booked Play flights with a premium credit card, like the Chase Sapphire Reserve® (see rates and fees), may be able to claim some compensation through the card’s travel insurance for any costs incurred while completing their trip.
Wow Air 2.0
A number of former executives from Wow Air, a previous Icelandic budget airline that shut down in 2019, launched Play in 2021. Play’s strategy was very similar to Wow’s: Offer dirt-cheap, no-frills airfare that comes with fees for everything from seat assignments to water on transatlantic trips via Keflavik Airport (KEF).
When Birgir Jonsson, Play’s first CEO, was asked in 2021 about the parallels between failed Wow and Play, he took the comparison as a compliment.
“Everyone has learned a lot,” he said in an interview with Skift at the time. “What happened at Wow Air [is] they simply grew too fast,” and he promised that Play would not repeat that mistake.
And true to his word, Play did not grow quickly under Jonsson’s leadership, which ended in 2024. The airline added planes slowly, and its fleet peaked at just 10 Airbus A320neo-family aircraft.
The issue Play faced was a changed transatlantic market since the days of Wow. Major carriers grew out of the coronavirus pandemic with basic economy airfares that still had all the frills of a large network airline — a strategy that targeted Play’s potential customer base. This is one of the issues afflicting Spirit Airlines, which is currently restructuring under bankruptcy protection.
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Also for Play, new planes like the A321XLR opened new routes to second-tier cities on both sides of the Atlantic, reducing the need for a transfer in Iceland. Post-coronavirus peak, travelers are increasingly willing to spend on more premium offerings — something Play did not offer.
In an attempt to improve its fortunes, Play unveiled a revised business plan in 2024 that shifted its focus to connecting Iceland to leisure destinations in Europe and less on transatlantic connecting flyers. And, in June, the airline confirmed it would end all transatlantic flying and exit its three U.S. destinations — Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI), Boston Logan International Airport (BOS) and New York Stewart International Airport (SWF) — by October.
Play’s last U.S. flight was scheduled to be Oct. 24 from BWI — which was fittingly also its first U.S. destination — but now it’s stopping all flights, effective immediately.
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