PLAY reports a 72% Load Factor in April and over 50% increase in passengers
The new Icelandic airline PLAY carried 36,669 passengers in April, which is a 55% increase from the previous month when passengers were 23,677. The load factor in April was 72.4% compared to 66.9% in March. The load has grown significantly even though operations to our first U.S. destinations started late in the month. This shows an increase across all our networks over the whole month of April. On-time performance was 90.1 %, demonstrating the professionalism of our operational teams in a challenging ramp-up phase into a hub-and-spoke model. PLAY is heading into a strong spring and summer as strong booking trends continue. PLAY has been seeing its strongest bookings in recent weeks, which strengthens the company’s revenue base. PLAY expects that utilization will continue to improve in the coming months with the addition of the VIA market to PLAY’s network as we have started connecting cities in Europe and the United States.
PLAY’s inaugural flight to the U.S.
April was an important month for PLAY as U.S. operations launched. On April 20, PLAY had its inaugural flight to Baltimore/Washington DC and therefore started the next chapter of the company’s history where passengers from North America and Europe are transported over the Atlantic Ocean with Iceland as a hub. The launch of the transatlantic operation was a great success and is a major achievement with one of PLAY’s long-term goals being reached. Since April 20, PLAY has operated flights daily to and from Baltimore/Washington DC. PLAY also began services to and from Dublin airport in April.
8 New Destinations in May
In May, PLAY will start operations to 8 new destinations; Lisbon in Portugal, Stavanger and Trondheim in Norway, Malaga in Spain, Prague in the Check Republic, Gothenburg in Sweden, Boston in the U.S and Brussels in Belgium. This means that PLAY will serve 25 destinations on both sides of the Atlantic in 2022.
“Over the last few months, we have felt a growing demand in the market and a great response to our new destinations. After a challenging winter, it is good to see this positive feeling materialize in an increased load factor and growing passenger numbers in April. We fully expect this trend to continue as future bookings are strong and healthy, particularly with the addition of the transatlantic traffic which strengthens the utilization of our key European city destinations. The team at PLAY has been working tirelessly towards the goal of launching the transatlantic operation as well as our many new European destinations and it has been great to watch all the pieces come together due to their precision, professionalism, and skills,” says Birgir Jónsson, PLAY’s CEO.
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