Icelandic low-cost carrier PLAY Airlines has forecasted that the carrier is in for a strong northern summer season in 2025, as it released its latest traffic figures for March 2025. With a new Maltese subsidiary operating under its own AOC and a swerve in strategy towards more European flights and the wet-leasing of aircraft, the company is feeling buoyant about the upcoming summer season.
PLAY carried 111,531 passengers in March 2025, compared to 142,918 passengers in March 2024. This drop is attributed to a 16.5% reduction of PLAY´s overall capacity year-on-year, following the company´s decision to lease one of its aircraft to GlobalX Airlines based in Miami, Florida. Over the past twelve months, the airline has also refocused its attention toward a growing European point-to-point network, while dropping services to two destinations in North America to “better match seasonal demand.”
The carrier’s load factor in March 2025 was 82.0%, compared to 88.1% in March of the previous year. Again, the airline attributes this drop to the refocusing on more seasonal leisure routes across Europe, particularly those in Southern Europa where traffic is more susceptible to peak periods of travel.
“While leisure traffic generates higher yields, these markets primarily operate on a point-to-point basis without ‘via’ feed (connecting traffic), leading to a lower load factor. Another contributing factor to lower load is the fact that Easter in 2025 is in April but was in March 2024,” said the airline in a statement.
Breaking down the March 2025 traffic figures, of the passengers traveling with PLAY during the month, 30.7% were flying from Iceland, 37.5.% were traveling to Iceland, and 31.8% were connecting passengers. PLAY’s on-time performance in March 2025 was 83.9%, compared to 94.0% in March of last year. The year-over-year difference was attributed to weather-related disruption in Iceland over the winter of 2024/25.
Looking ahead, the outlook for summer 2025 remains positive, said the airline, with an “improved seat factor across all market segments compared to the same period [in 2024].”
“Traffic to and from Iceland continues to show particularly strong forward bookings, with a higher volume of seats sold year-over-year despite a reduction in capacity. Connecting traffic is trending below last year’s levels, primarily due to reduced capacity and a strategic shift in focus towards Iceland and leisure markets,” added the company’s statement.
The airline recently announced that its new Maltese subsidiary PLAY Europe had received its Air Operators Certificate from the Maltese aviation authority and was ready to commence operations with the first of three Airbus A321neos transferred from the parent company in Iceland. The aircraft are all to be leased out to other carriers via ACMI (Aircraft, Crew, Maintenance, Insurance) wet-lease arrangements While the company refused to name the recipient airline of the first A321neo to be leased out, aircraft 9H-PEA has recently been spotted wearing a hybrid SkyUp Airlines scheme.
“Receiving the Air Operator Certificate (AOC) in Malta for our new subsidiary, Play Europe, is a major milestone for our company and a crucial step toward building more stable financial operations,” said Einar Örn Ólafsson, CEO of PLAY. This certification enables us to carry out our stated plan of operating a part of our fleet as a charter or ACMI business for other operators, making our business more predictable, profitable, and resilient.”
“I want to sincerely thank the incredible team at PLAY for their tireless efforts in securing the AOC. This achievement is a testament to their dedication and hard work. As we approach the Easter season, our focus is on delivering exceptional service to all the passengers who will be flying with us over the holidays, he added.”
Additionally, for the summer of 2025, PLAY will be launching its first series of flights to Antalya in Turkey. This new route, launching later in April 2025, marks the first time scheduled flights have operated between Iceland and Turkey, says the carrier. In the same month, PLAY will also begin service to Faro, Portugal which becomes the airline’s fourth destination in the country, alongside Lisbon, Porto, and Madeira.
The airline will operate an all-Airbus fleet of six A320neos and three A321neos in the summer of 2025, flying to 39 destinations across 21 countries in Europe and North America.