Summary
- Play Airlines’ new CEO, Einar Örn Ólafsson, aims to prioritize profitability over US expansion
- Ölafsson plans to break even by 2024, introducing new US destinations between 2025-2027
- Play’s US operations peak in July-August, with 248 flights on four routes, serving over 50,000 seats/month.
Einar Örn Ólafsson, Play Airlines’ new CEO, plans to slow the airline’s United States expansion to focus on profitability as the three-year-old carrier has not posted an annual profit in three years.
Slowing expansion and focusing on profitability
Play Airlines is a young airline from Iceland, sporting a bright-red livery on its aircraft, and driven by a primary strategy of offering low prices. Einar Örn Ólafsson is the airline’s second CEO since its launch in 2021, relacing Birgir Jónsson, who led the airline from the start. Ólafsson began his time at the airline as the chairman of the board.
According to a report from The Points Guy, Ólafsson has made it clear since taking over that his goal is to make the airline profitable, which has not happened. During its first-quarter investor presentation, Play said that in 2024, it hopes to break even and grow to profit in 2025. The United States (US) is one of Play’s most important markets, and what Ólafsson plans to do in the US has been of interest for several months.
Photo: PLAY
In an interview with Forbes a few months ago, Ólafsson did not disclose many details about future plans in the US. What he did say is that he hoped the airline could find more cities within a five-hour window from Reykjavik so that planes could fly out and back without having to sit on the ground. He said expansion outside the five-hour window would come when the fleet was larger.
Because Ólafsson plans to break even in 2024, there will be no addition to the US network. Speaking with The Points Guy, he said there are more cities on the Eastern Seaboard and Eastern Canada that Play would like to fly to. Further, Ólafsson said that the airline will likely add three new destinations between 2025 and 2027.
Current US operations
According to data from Cirium, an aviation analytics firm, Play’s US operations will peak in July and August, with 248 flights. This equates to daily flights on four routes, offering more than 50,000 seats each month. Interestingly enough, two of Play’s American destinations are close to each other, Baltimore and Washington Dulles.
Photo: PLAY
Play is currently flying to Boston Logan International Airport (BOS), Dulles International Airport (IAD), Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI), and New York Stewart International Airport (SWF). The first two are more congested airports, and Stewart is a perfect, smaller alternative to reach New York City. All of Play’s American routes except to IAD are flown by the Airbus A321neo. The Airbus A320neo serves IAD.
Comparing Play’s 2023 operations to this year, the airline has the same number of flights to the US. The only difference is that this year, it is offering 56 more seats because of one flight to SWF that was served with the A320neo last year. In total, the airline has 1,110 flights scheduled in July, including all of its European destinations. More than 214,000 seats are available on the airline’s network.