PLAY Passenger numbers grew by 61% in January

The Icelandic budget carrier, PLAY Airlines carried 99,704 passengers in January 2024, the company confirmed this week. That is up 61% increase from January 2023 when PLAY carried 61,798 passengers. The load factor in January 2024 was 75% compared to 77% in January 2023. 

The airline has reported the demand for flights to Iceland had been affected negatively in the short term by global news coverage of the seismic activity in the Reykjanes Peninsula in November 2023, some of which the carrier claims was inaccurate. Forward bookings are looking good and thus PLAY believes the load factor will increase soon.  Ancillary Yield is also growing, with January experiencing a notable 21% increase year on year.

Of all passengers travelling with PLAY in January 2024, 27.1% were travelling from Iceland, 31.1% were travelling to Iceland and 41.8% were connecting passengers. PLAY’s on-time performance in January was 78.1%, negatively impacted by adverse weather conditions in Iceland.

New destination, the launch of Stopover and Europe’s youngest fleet

In January, PLAY announced flights to Split in Croatia. PLAY’s first flight to Split will be on May 28 and flights will be operated once a week until October. This will be the first time that scheduled flights are operated between Iceland and Split and this is also PLAY’s first destination in Croatia. PLAY’s route network will include around 40 destinations in 2024. 

In late January, it was announced that passengers can now book themselves an up to 10-day Stopover in Iceland with no additional cost. PLAY already offers competitive prices in all its markets and this new feature gives passengers even more reason to choose PLAY. This makes the airline more competitive and will further exploit PLAY’s strategic connecting flights between North America and Europe with Iceland as a hub in the middle.

To compete more fully with Icelandair, PLAY's new stopovers will take advantage of the airline’s hub-and-spoke model, with all flights connecting through Iceland. PLAY’s stopovers will enable passengers to stay up to 10 days in Iceland to experience the island’s incredible natural wonders including waterfalls, geysers, hot springs, glaciers and Northern lights. 

“PLAY has taken advantage of Iceland’s location near Europe to bring travellers convenient flights and affordable fares, and now the stopover feature brings even more benefits to our passengers. Rather than having a few hours' layover in Iceland, travellers can make a stop at this bucket-list destination for an extra day or week to experience everything our home country has to offer. Long stayovers are a win-win for both us and our passengers to enable exploration at a low price,” said PLAY CEO Birgir Jónsson.

PLAY Airlines had its first flight in June 2021 and operates a modern fleet of 10 Airbus A320/321neo´s where the average age of the aircraft is little over two years. 

In North America, PLAY operates flights to Baltimore, Boston, New York and Washington DC in the United States and Toronto in Canada. PLAY operates more than 30 European destinations, including Paris, Berlin, Amsterdam, London, Copenhagen, Barcelona and Athens. 

Last year, PLAY´s crew was voted the best by the readers of USA Today 10Best and recognized as the top low-cost airline in Northern Europe, according to the prestigious World Airline Awards, which are based on customer satisfaction. 

PLAY offers competitive prices in all its markets and strives to make travel more affordable. PLAY emphasizes operational excellence and is proud of an impressive 83% on-time performance in 2023. By choosing PLAY, passengers will have a safe and reliable journey and will spend less on their flight ticket, which means that they can spend more on their destination. Or to put it simply: Pay less, PLAY more!

PLAY Airlines won ch-aviation’s award Europe’s Youngest Aircraft Fleet for the second year in a row, which was announced in January. PLAY operates a fleet of 10 Airbus A320/321neo’s with the average age of only 3.51 years. PLAY is dedicated to maintaining a young and modern fleet which directly contributes to fuel efficiency and a safe and reliable journey for its passengers.