PLAY: game over for Iceland’s low cost airline
When PLAY took to the skies in 2021, it sought to fill the gap vacated by the bankruptcy of WOW air in Mar-2019: low cost flights from Iceland to Europe and to North America, connecting the two continents. By 2023 it had 19% of international seats to/from Iceland, mainly at the expense of Icelandair.
However, PLAY has ended the same way as WOW air. It ceased operations and filed for bankruptcy on 29-Sep-2025.
The reasons it gave for the decision included the company's weaker than expected performance, poor recent sales following negative media coverage and employee discontent over changes in strategy.
PLAY's strategic shift away from the North Atlantic hub-and-spoke model to focus on point-to-point leisure destinations in Europe, announced in autumn 2024, has not been able to "deliver results sufficient to overcome the company's deep-rooted challenges".
The main winner from PLAY's exit will be Icelandair.
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