Play airline began its first scheduled flight under the water of honor at Keflavik Airport today. The CEO says this is a huge day. The company will, however, be built up slowly, but the aim is to grow to fifteen aircraft over the next four years.
A new Icelandic airline has joined Leifsstod’s gangway. In the terminal, the beginning was marked by Birgir Jonsson, CEO of Play, and Gudmundur Dadi Runarsson, CEO of Isavia, cutting a ribbon together and was greeted with a round of applause, as can be seen in Megalopreneur Magzine.
But it was not only celebrating the first flight but also a new share offering, which started today but the company will be formally listed on the market in Iceland in two weeks.
A huge day, in every sense of the word,” says Birgir.
And then the check-in of passengers began. Play already has about two hundred employees. There are about a hundred flight crews, and almost all of the former employees of Wow Air, but the pilot in this first flight was Siggeir Siggeirsson.
“Wow was of course a great company and maybe possibly got a little lost, as Skuli Mogensen has humbly admitted himself.
We will try to do the right things and avoid the wrong ones. We’re not going on those long flights. We are not going to go to India and we are not going to take the wide jets to Los Angeles and such. So we are going to focus on what we know works, “says Birgir.
And when driving from the terminal, the Play jet received a special tribute from the airport fire brigade. The airline’s gestation period has otherwise been quite long, 27 months, which is the time that has elapsed since the bankruptcy of Wow Air.
The CEO says that only jets from the Airbus A320 line will be operated and construction will proceed slowly.
“We intend to grow to fifteen aircraft by 2025 and do so in considered and disciplined steps,” says Birgir.
This first flight today was to Stanstead Airport near London. The company has already announced flights to nine destinations in Europe and next year it is aiming for American flights.
