When the operations of the budget airline Play get off the ground, its two Airbus planes will fly to six destinations in Europe: Alicante, Berlin, Copenhagen, London, Paris, and Tenerife.
With reference to “confidential” documents from a presentation held by Íslensk verðbréf for investors last week, Kjarninn reported that the airline had already negotiated slots and service hours with airports in the cities and that it had also secured a deal on fuel with BP, with a fixed price for six months.
Play will be adding four more planes to its fleet in May of next year; two more planes, a year later; and in May of 2022, Play plans on operating a total of ten planes. More destinations will gradually be added (including four American cities next year).
Flights with Play will be sold as soon as the airline secures an operating license, which is expected to happen as soon as funding is completed. Play hopes to raise ISK 1.7 billion from private investors in Iceland. The airline has secured debt financing with the British investment fund Athene Capital to an amount of ISK 5.5 billion.
In an interview with Morgunblaðið yesterday, Play’s public relations officer María Margrét Jóhannsdóttir was not willing to confirm Kjarninn’s reports. María Margrét stated that the airline’s flight network would be introduced “very soon,” or as soon as it had been finalised: “We have not finalised anything; otherwise, we would have already made an announcement.”
As Iceland Review reported last Tuesday, Play – a new Icelandic airline – was founded from the bankruptcy of WOW air and will swap out WOW’s quintessential fuschia colour for red. According to Play’s CEO Arnar Már Magnússon, the colour red was chosen to represent passion as well as Icelandic nature. WOW Air was Iceland’s only budget airline.
