Icelandic low-cost carrier PLAY has announced substantial changes to its corporate structure and operations, as it continues to realign its business model in search of profitability.
PLAY’s two largest shareholders, its CEO, Einar Örn Ólafsson, and Vice Chairman of the Board and co-founder, Elías Skúli Skúlason, will acquire the remaining shares they currently don’t control and take the company private.
The airline will then be delisted from the Icelandic stock exchange (Nasdaq Iceland).
The two businessmen are offering 1 ISK per share (US$0.008) to current shareholders for their shares (as of June 12, 2025, the stock market price of PLAY shares was 0.9 ISK). The whole deal is valued at around US$20 million, of which the acquirers are said to have secured close to a third.
On the operational front, PLAY has confirmed the complete cessation of all North American flights from October 2025. This move is in line with the airline’s strategy to focus on European leisure destinations.
At its inception, PLAY aimed to replicate, albeit with lower fares, the business model of fellow Icelandic carrier Icelandair, which for decades has operated a successful Transatlantic hub out of Keflavik (KEF) airport. This operation uses mostly single-aisle aircraft, taking advantage of Iceland’s mid-Atlantic location.
However, in October 2024, PLAY’s management acknowledged that this strategy did not meet expectations and decided to refocus its network on the European continent and the Canary Islands.
At the time of the announcement, only three US destinations remained on PLAY’s network: New York Stewart (SWF), Boston Logan (BOS) and Baltimore-Washington International Airport (BWI).
As part of this readjustment, PLAY will also reduce the number of flights to destinations in northern Europe and return its Icelandic Air Operator Certificate (AOC). The airline will operate solely under its Maltese AOC.
According to data from ch-aviation, as of June 2025, PLAY has a total of 10 aircraft, eight of which are operated by its Icelandic entity and another two A321s under its Maltese AOC.
Of these, only four aircraft will continue to operate out of Iceland under PLAY’s own brand name, with the remaining six aircraft being made available for lease to other airlines under ACMI arrangements.
PLAY will retain its Icelandic crew, although it will continue to refocus most of its back-office functions to offices in Malta and Lithuania.
