PLAY Airlines changes business plan amid weak profits – Aviacionline

PLAY Airlines changes his business plan to Focus on Iceland’s strong leisure markets while at the same time Reducing the priority of its passenger connection business between North America and Europe.

Much of PLAY’s business is based on the point-to-point model, mainly between Iceland and southern Europe, which saw significant demand from the start. The performance of the hub-and-spoke model on transatlantic flights has been reported to be dismal, particularly in 2024. The North American market has changed dramatically recently, with an overall increase in supply negatively impacting PLAY’s finances. As a measure, the low-cost airline has decided to significantly reduce its capacity on transatlantic routes.

This change is already underway and will last until 2025. The number of PLAY destinations in North America and Northern Europe will decrease by mid-2025and the focus will be on the airline’s leisure markets in Southern Europe. These changes will have minimal impact on customers who have made their reservations with PLAY. The Icelandic low-cost airline will deploy part of its fleet outside Europe, PLAY will take over operations for Global X from November 1st to March 15th. In order to realize this project, The company has applied for an air operator’s certificate in Malta. This process is expected to be completed in spring 2025.

PLAY plans to move its first aircraft under the new Maltese AOC to Tenerife, where it will operate flights from Reykjavik and Akureyri in Iceland, as well as other destinations. After these changes The low-cost estimates assume that the company will operate between 6 and 7 of its aircraft in Icelandic AOC and between 3 and 4 in Maltese AOC.