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In a significant shift in strategy, Icelandic low-cost carrier PLAY has announced plans to discontinue all transatlantic flights starting in October 2025. Northern Europe will also see a reduced emphasis in the airline’s future routes.

Play plans to increase its offerings to sunnier leisure destinations across Europe while maintaining its commitment to tourism in and out of Iceland.

As part of its restructuring, PLAY will register its fleet in Malta to take advantage of more favourable regulations and tax benefits, but continue to fly in and out of Reykjavik. The airline will operate four of its 10 aircraft directly, while leasing six others to various airlines and travel organisations.

Despite these changes, PLAY assures passengers that they will not notice any differences in service quality. The airline’s branding and Icelandic crew will remain.

What’s going on here?

Two of PLAY’s largest shareholders, led by CEO Einar Örn Ólafsson, are planning a takeover bid to delist the airline from the stock exchange. The takeover plan intends to focus on profitable operations, while discontinuing less successful routes, including those to the U.S.

Einar Örn Ólafsson stated, “This is primarily a plan for practical changes to the operations of the Icelandic airline PLAY. We’re focusing on the profitable aspects of the business—sun destination flights—and discontinuing those that have not yielded results.”

Bottom line

This certainly isn’t the first time we’ve seen a low-cost carrier attempt – and fail – to make a success of transatlantic flights. Despite the proven challenges, it’s unlikely to be the last either.

The restructuring seems fairly sensible/inevitable given the situation. That said, whether an airline can really hope to succeed by flying just 4 aircraft remains to be seen – even if it does have a potentially decent niche serving Iceland.