PLAY Airlines receives AOC for its new Maltese-based subsidiary carrier

PLAY Airlines, the Icelandic low-cost operator has announced that it has received the Air Operator’s Certificate (AOC) for its new Malta-based subsidiary company, to be known as PLAY Europe. The announcement of the awarding of an AOC by the Maltese Civil Aviation Directorate was made on March 28, 2025, as the carrier hosted a special event at the new subsidiary’s headquarters in Malta.

It was in November 2024 that PLAY Airlines revealed that it intended to set up a new Maltese sister airline, as part of making fundamental changes to its operating model and route network. The announcement came following the carrier stating that its forecasted earnings in 2024 would fall below market expectations and that several changes needed to be made to protect the company’s long-term viability.

PLAY Europe has therefore been established to “carry out projects in Europe for other airlines,” which will include the new carrier entering the wet-lease arena in Europe for the first time. Wet-lease arrangements, otherwise known as ACMI (aircraft, crew, maintenance, insurance) deals, will see the carrier operate its aircraft on behalf of another airline. Often the leased aircraft assume the external colors of the customer airline, but this is not always the case and normally depends on the length of the lease involved.

Markus Mainka / ShutterstockThe Reykjavik-based parent airline currently operates a fleet of ten aircraft – all Airbus-built with six A320neos and four A321neos. However, it is understood that three aircraft will initially be transferred to PLAY Europe, which have already been contracted by PLAY Malta to operate on behalf on behalf of a ”major airline operator in Eastern Europe”, according to a company statement, although the identity of the actual end customer has not yet been disclosed. These three aircraft will operate exclusively outside of Iceland and not under the PLAY scheduled services brand.

Pilots and senior cabin crew will be employees of PLAY Europe rather than the parent company in Iceland and will be hired and based in the country from which the wet-lease customer operates, says PLAY Europe. The first aircraft registered under the Maltese AOC is one of the parent company’s existing Airbus A321neos manufactured in 2018. The aircraft, having previously appeared on the Icelandic register as TF-AEW, now bears its new Maltese registration of 9H-PEA.

“This is an important step for us,” said Einar Örn Ólafsson, CEO of PLAY. “These leasing projects will generate profitability for PLAY in line with previous projections and will make the company’s operations more predictable and stable, with a positive financial outlook. Receiving the Maltese AOC today, well ahead of schedule, is the result of tireless work carried out with outstanding professionalism by our team over the past months, and we are very proud of this milestone,” he added.

Trambitski / ShutterstockCharles Pace, Director General of the Civil Aviation Directorate of Malta said, “I am pleased to welcome PLAY Europe as part of Malta’s aviation history. I thank all those who have contributed to the project and for bringing this significant investment to Malta. The process has gone very smoothly, and I would like to express my appreciation to the inspectors from the Civil Aviation Directorate and the PLAY team, who have worked with great diligence to achieve this milestone. I look forward to seeing the airline grow and thrive in the months and years ahead,” Pace added.

In the meantime, PLAY Airlines of Iceland will continue to operate as an Icelandic-based low-cost airline, with the majority of its aircraft based in Keflavík Airport (KEF) near Reykjavik, Iceland. While the airline has recently dropped services from Iceland to Toronto and Washington DC on its transatlantic network, it continues to fly to New York, Boston, and Baltimore.

PLAY AirlinesThe changes came as the airline shifted its focus from acting primarily as a connecting carrier for passengers between Europe and North America to concentrating on serving point-to-point leisure routes between Iceland and points across Southern Europe, a sector in which the carrier has expanded hugely throughout 2024. The carrier said that the yield on its hub-and-spoke operations on routes across the Atlantic had been disappointing in 2024 as other carriers poured extra capacity onto some key transatlantic routes while opening up new services on others, leading to the refocusing on Europe as the airline’s key market.

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