The Sunday Times April 24, 2022 23Travel USA
A new Icelandic airline is the latest to try to
crack the budget transatlantic market — with
fares from £189. Cathy Adams boards the
inaugural flight and asks: can it succeed?
DC
LOW-COST TO
M
iley Cyrus’s
Party in the
USA booms
from the
speakers, a
string of plastic star-spangled
banners flap from the ceiling
and an extravagantly tiered
White House cake is being
sliced. Nothing to see here: just
your average low-key airline
launch party.
You can forgive the
Americana — we’re making
history in the most unlikely
of times. Last Wednesday,
Play, a new low-cost Icelandic
airline, flew from London to
Washington — its first US
destination — via Reykjavik.
I was on board to join the
party, and to find out: who on
earth launches a low-cost
transatlantic carrier during
a pandemic?
The no-frills carrier Play,
risen from the ashes of Wow
Air, the cheap Icelandic carrier
that met its end in 2019, is
doing that thing well known to
budget airlines: flying to
cheaper, out-of-the-way hubs
(in this case Stansted and
Baltimore, Maryland), using
small aircraft with fewer seats,
and doing away with free
food and faff. The catch is a
squeaky 90-minute stopover
in Reykjavik, but prices from
London to the American
capital start from £189
one-way.
Great. But haven’t we been
here before?
Sort of. Where Play differs to
its Nordic predecessors Wow
and Norwegian is that it’s a far
smaller operation with no
dizzying expansion plan. It has
a fleet of five Airbus A320s and
A321neos, and the idea is to
ramp up to 15 aircraft by 2025,
flying a tight route network
focused on the US east coast
and Europe.
Planes depart Reykjavik at
about 3pm and, unusually for
transatlantic flights, which
normally have a slower
turnaround, spend just a
couple of hours on the tarmac
in Washington before
departing early evening to
return to the Icelandic capital.
The chief executive, Birgir
Jonsson — a former rock star
and “the most reluctant airline
CEO you will meet” — admits
Play isn’t particularly sexy or
glamorous, but is, rather,
unfamiliar to most of America.
You’d need a lifetime to
appreciate every institution,
and on this tour I have time to
see only a handful of my
favourite things: the
Baltimore-made Star-Spangled
Banner in the Museum of
American History; the earnest
George Washington portrait
in the National Portrait
Gallery; the subdued Edward
Hoppers in the American Art
Museum. I circle the front of
the White House and stand in
the middle of Pennsylvania
Avenue, staring towards the
Capitol. Somehow just being in
this city feels like a study in
American patriotism.
Play’s focus might be more
on selling customers the
merits of the destination
rather than the service on
board, but the main question
remains: will it work? It’s
heartening to see a cheap
airline flying across the Pond
again; Play’s hand-luggage
allowance is reassuringly
normal and the A320neo it is
flying to the US has more
legroom than a short-haul
would normally allow. The
food was even edible.
The aviation consultant John
Strickland gives me his take.
“Play has come in the midst of
the pandemic and shown it
can get efficient aircraft for a
good price,” he says. “As it’s
flying narrow-body aircraft it
doesn’t have to overly discount
prices to fill excess seats,
which may be required for
larger wide-bodies.
“The Airbus A320neos are
very fuel-efficient; and as it’s
operating services as a one-
stop from Reykjavik, the
passenger composition is
an amalgam of different
journeys, so there is not a
reliance only on one type of
point-to-point market.”
Jonsson employs trademark
outward-looking Icelandic
optimism about whether Play
will still be in the air in ten
years: “We have a fighting
chance.” For a return fare to
the US that will give you
change from £400, we have no
option but to hope he’s right.Cathy Adams was a guest of
Play, which has one-way fares
from London Stansted to
Baltimore Washington Airport
from £189 (flyplay.com)“We’ll always be a niche
player in the market,” Jonsson
tells me over breakfast in DC,
the morning after the
inaugural plane was sprayed
by the traditional water
cannon at the airport. “We’re
laid-back, no frills, but we get
people to their destination at
the right time, at a price
they’re comfortable
with.” The chiefexecutive, who describes
himself as “not an aviation
guy”, worked at Wow before its
collapse in 2019.
The decision to choose
Washington as his airline’s first
US destination was a smart
one. For starters it’s a
gorgeous city to visit in
spring, with near-perfect
temperatures, although we’ve
just missed the cherry blossom
fringing the Tidal Basin. The
city is in swaggering mood
post-pandemic. The tourists
are returning to the National
Mall; they’re standing on the
Lincoln Memorial steps
snapping the reflection
of the Washington Memorial;
and strolling alongside the
canal in Georgetown, artisan
coffee in hand.
DC shares one key bit of
DNA with Play too. It’s one of
the best cities in the US to visit
on a budget, as all 19 of the
city’s world-class Smithsonian
museums are free; a pricefocused on keeping things
simple and profitable. The goal
is “getting people from A to B”,
even if the B is actually a city
50 miles away in another state.
For all the talk of the
fundamentals, you can’t
escape the fact that Play is
quite fun and zeitgeisty.
There’s the name; there’s the
jolly postbox-red livery; and
there’s the cabin crew in neatred suits and bespoke Nike
trainers. The slogan is the
snappy “pay less, play more”.
Half of the management team
are women; the same goes
for the board. I had to pick my
jaw up off the floor after
hearing that women earn
more than men (by a margin
smaller than the one Play is
operating on, but still). If God
made airlines...Play employees with, far left, CEO Birgir Jonsson.
Top, Washington is the first long-haul destinationReykjavik-
KeflavikBaltimore-
WashingtonLondon
Stansted
USAICELAND1,000 milesand “themost reluctant airline
CEO you will meet” — admits
Play isn’t particularly sexy or
glamorous, but is, rather,
Play, which has one-way fares
from London Stansteddto
Baltimore Washington Airport
from £189 (((flyplay.comm)people to their destination at
the right time, at a price
they’re comfortable
with.”Thechiefthebestcities in the US tovisit
on a budget, as all 19 of the
city’s world-class Smithsonian
museums are free; a pricequite fun and zeitgeisty.
There’s the name; there’s the
jolly postbox-red livery; and
there’s the cabin crew in neatmore than men (by a margin
smaller than the one Play is
operating on, but still). If God
made airlines...