PLAY will hire 200+ new employees

"Our biggest objectives this coming winter are receiving four new aircraft, which will be added to our fleet next year, and hiring more crew members. 300 great people are already working at PLAY and that group will be even bigger next year when we will hire 200 more,” says Birgir Jonsson, PLAY‘s CEO.

PLAY is a new Icelandic low-cost airline operating flights between North America and Europe. PLAY offers low-cost flights and a safe and pleasant journey in our new and comfortable Airbus aircraft.

PLAY expects to carry around 800 thousand passengers in 2022 and report revenue of approx. USD 150-160 million. Unit cost (CASK excl. fuel) continues to decrease with the expanded operation and PLAY expects operational profit later this year.

PLAY reached its cost target ahead of time, being under 4 US cents CASK excl. fuel due to effective cost control and increased economy of scale with more aircraft. During Q2, the main focus was on preparing for the airline’s operational ramp-up before the summer schedule and the hub-and-spoke operation, and by the time Q3 started, PLAY’s full hub-and-spoke network was in place with six aircraft in operation. PLAY successfully started operating flights to fourteen new markets in Q2.

Birgir Jonsson, PLAY‘s CEO.

"We can safely say that PLAY has now emerged from the tough obstacle course of the startup and expansion phase and smoother sailing is ahead. Over the past months we have created a solid foundation that we will use to keep developing PLAY as a successful company. The second quarter of 2022 was the last hurdle towards running our business model which came into full effect in July, at the beginning of the third quarter. After rapid expansion with many new destinations, the deployment of our VIA operations and receiving new aircraft, our operations are now stable. I am so proud of the people working at PLAY who have managed to start this company during a volatile time in a complicated business environment. We are now coming out of the development phase with a strong financial position and finally the external conditions are more favorable after strong headwinds. Oil prices are, for example, going down fast. We see brighter times ahead, our booking status is strong and we plan on showing a positive operating result later this year. People are clearly not deterred from traveling because of the coronavirus anymore. We see that in the increase of our long-term bookings and a drop in cancellation coverage. Our biggest objectives this coming winter are receiving four new aircraft, which will be added to our fleet next year, and hiring more crew members. 300 great people are already working at PLAY and that group will be even bigger next year when we will hire 200 more,” says Birgir Jonsson, PLAY‘s CEO.