Once again, Iceland loses a budget airline. After Wow Air ceased operations in 2019, history is now repeating itself with PLAY Airlines. The carrier only operated its first flight in 2021 and even had former Wow Air managers on board.
It had already become clear over the summer that the airline was struggling. The concept of transporting passengers from Europe via Iceland to North America was officially abandoned at that time. Now everything has happened very quickly.
As stated on the company’s website, flight operations have been suspended with immediate effect. A look at Flightradar24 shows, however, that the airline was still flying passengers this morning, including to Amsterdam and Copenhagen.
Consequences for Ticket Holders
Bankruptcy now seems unavoidable. Affected passengers theoretically have a right to rebooking, but they will have to file their claims with the insolvency administrator.
Anyone holding a ticket should instead try to get a refund through a credit card chargeback and then arrange an alternative flight themselves. Based on experience, this should work with all Visa and Mastercard credit cards, but not with American Express. More details here:
It is possible that other airlines, such as Icelandair, will offer rescue fares (discounted tickets for stranded passengers).
Translated by Ditmar
Cover Picture: A PLAY plane | © Fly Play hf.,Reykjavik, Iceland