Upstart Icelandic airline PLAY received initial approval from the US Department of Transportation for flights to the United States. Lacking any objections – and none are anticipated – the company should receive its final approval before the end of the year. This works well with the company’s planned launch of service to the “US East Coast” in the first half of 2022.
PLAY aims to recreate much of the early success of WOW, with A321neo operated flights between the US and Iceland, with onward connections to the rest of Europe. Those plans took a delay owing to COVID, but the carrier launched services between Iceland and other European destinations earlier this Summer.
Unlike WOW, PLAY will only offer a single class of service on board. PLAY also intends to only operate single-aisle aircraft. WOW’s expansion into A330s and longer haul markets is seen by many as a strategic error that doomed the airline’s potential, well before COVID-19 destroyed the transatlantic leisure market.
Specific US destinations and launch dates have not yet been announced. But with the approval in hand expect those details to come soon enough.
More on PLAY’s road to launch:
- Come PLAY in Iceland: Another new airline launches in the wake of WOW Air
- Iceland’s PLAY secures slots at Gatwick, Stansted, Dublin
- PLAY secures certification, first aircraft
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