PLAY Airlines, the Icelandic low-cost operator has announced that it has received the Air Operator’s Certificate (AOC) for its new Malta-based subsidiary company, to be known as PLAY Europe. The announcement of the awarding of an AOC by the Maltese Civil Aviation Directorate was made on March 28, 2025, as the carrier hosted a special event at the new subsidiary’s headquarters in Malta.

It was in November 2024 that PLAY Airlines revealed that it intended to set up a new Maltese sister airline, as part of making fundamental changes to its operating model and route network. The announcement came following the carrier stating that its forecasted earnings in 2024 would fall below market expectations and that several changes needed to be made to protect the company’s long-term viability.

PLAY Europe has therefore been established to “carry out projects in Europe for other airlines,” which will include the new carrier entering the wet-lease arena in Europe for the first time. Wet-lease arrangements, otherwise known as ACMI (aircraft, crew, maintenance, insurance) deals, will see the carrier operate its aircraft on behalf of another airline. Often the leased aircraft assume the external colors of the customer airline, but this is not always the case and normally depends on the length of the lease involved.

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