Last year may have brought several airlines to a shuddering halt, but 2021 has already seen the launch of several ambitious start-ups, among them the Icelandic low-cost carrier PLAY.
The coronavirus pandemic has materially altered the aviation industry in more ways than one, forcing established carriers to plan and execute strategies aimed at surviving the storm the virus created. While most have been downscaling operations, several groups have, somewhat counterintuitively, been planning the launch of new airlines.
One such example is Iceland’s PLAY, which officially launched in May, initially with plans to fly to seven destinations from its home base at Keflavík International Airport.
“PLAY is a new Icelandic low-cost airline, which aims to serve the US and European markets connecting in Iceland through a hub-and-spoke system,” said CEO Birgir Jónsson, who was speaking to AIR International from the company’s offices near Reykjavík. “Our price point is on the lower end of the scale, so we are an LCC [low-cost carrier] model.”
