New airline set to Play at Stansted

A render of an Airbus A321 in Play livery
A render of an Airbus A321 in Play livery

A new Icelandic carrier Play is set to begin operations to London Stansted from Keflavik after securing its Air Operator Certificate (AOC) and signing the lease on an Airbus A321neo.

The low-cost carrier, which is the brainchild of key executives from failed carrier WOW, has announced Stansted as the first route and expects to launch flights on 24th June.

Play has leased an Airbus A321neo from AerCap which has been registered TF-AEW.

The airline recently tweeted its news and posted a picture of Andri Geir Eyjólfsson, Head of Play’s Technical Department and Pilots Halldór Guðfinnsson & Friðrik Ottesen, taking delivery of the aircraft.

Play will operate with a pure low-cost model and will have, on the face of it, many similarities to WOW but is likely to stay away from the larger aircraft WOW took on for US routes.

WOW Air Airbus A320 TF-BRO (Image: Nick Harding / Aviation Wales)
Bankrupt WOW operated from several UK airports including London Stansted and Bristol (Image: Nick Harding / TransportMedia UK)

The airline expects two more A321’s to be added to the fleet in Summer 2021 and other destinations in the pipeline include Alicante, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin, Copenhagen and Tenerife.

About Nick Harding 2043 Articles
Nick is the senior reporter and editor at UK Aviation News as well as working freelance elsewhere. He has his finger firmly on the pulse on Aviation, not only in the UK but worldwide. Nick has been asked to speak in a professional capacity on LBC, Heart and other broadcast networks.