Icelandic start-up carrier Play has filed for authority to begin services from Reykjavik to the US east coast next summer as it plots the next steps of its development.
Play launched services in June linking Iceland with London Stansted, and has since expanded to operate seven European services.
While initially launching operations using three Airbus A321neos this summer, the airline has previously outlined its intent to launch transatlantic flights next year.
It has now filed an application with the US Department of Transportation seeking authority to begin scheduled passenger flights to the US east coast in summer 2022. The routes will be served using A321neos in a single-class configuration.
Play does not specify the destinations it has planned, but the airline is building on many of the routes formerly served by Icelandic budget operation Wow before its collapse in 2019. Wow’s east coast US destinations from Reykjavik included Baltimore, Boston, Newark and New York JFK.
Play chief executive Birgir Jonsson told FlightGlobal in an interview in May that Wow’s network had been successful before it expanded into widebody operations to the US west coast and Asia.
“When Wow was a relatively small, hub-and-spoke airline, using the A320 family, it made money. So we think the opportunity is still there to have a small and flexible carrier,” he said.
