It was early last winter when two former directors at WOW air announced their plans to start a new low-cost airline. The company was named Play and the plan was to start operating flights in the beginning of 2020.
Today the group behind Play must be relieved that they didn’t manage to maintain that plan, as Covid-19 came soon after to lay ruin to the economy and the operation of most airlines.
Therefore Play is now working in a completely different environment, both in regards to competition and specially when it comes to leasing.
“The situation in the lease market has changed a lot over the last two or three months. Rates are completely different from the beginning of the year since now thousands of aircrafts have become homeless. Today you can lease an aircraft and only pay for hours being flown and also very favorable terms on all guarantees,“ says Skúli Skúlason, Chairman of the Board of Play, in an interview with Vidskiptabladid, an Icelandic Icelandic business media.
Play intends to build its fleet on Airbus just as WOW air did, but only on A320.
Play’s chairman says the company’s first flight is scheduled for October, but reiterates that there is no need to start flights during the winter months when the number of tourists is reduced. „It costs a lot to grow if you do it too fast, but I think we wouldn’t rush too fast if we had six to eight aircrafts in the spring, even more.“ He added that if conditions are right, the company could also have up to fifteen aircraft next summer.
Today, 36 people work for Play and the chairman says the operation will cost between 200,000 and 300,000 euros per month.
It is not known where Play will fly. The company’s original plan was to start regular flights to Copenhagen, Berlin, London, Alicante, Tenerife and Paris. Later, the plan is to start flights to North America – to New York, Boston, Baltimore and Toronto.
