Earlier this month, new entrant PLAY revealed Baltimore and Boston as its initial US routes, nearly four months after it applied to serve the country. These cities were the longest served of defunct WOW Air's extensive US network, suggesting more robust performance than other US destinations.

PLAY A321neo
PLAY's CEO says his airline is not operating on a low-cost long-hual model but rather will focused on connecting destinations in the US and Europe through Rejkyavik. Photo: Colin Cooke Photo via Flickr

What's happening?

Keflavik to Baltimore will take off on April 20th, with the 2,762-mile (4,445 km) route served once-daily. Also served once-daily will be Boston, 2,413 miles (3,883 km) away, beginning on May 11th. Both routes will use 192-seat A321neos, with an economy-only layout, and they have the following schedule (all times are local).

  • OG101: Keflavik to Baltimore, 15:05-17:50
  • OG102: Baltimore to Keflavik, 19:00-05:00+1 the following day
  • OG111: Keflavik to Boston, 15:30-17:30
  • OG112: Boston to Keflavik, 1900-04:30+1 the following day
PLAY to Baltimore and Boston
As you'd expect, PLAY's timings are about the same as WOW's. Image: GCMap.

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PLAY will compete with Icelandair

At first, PLAY will not have any direct competition to Baltimore, although it'll compete indirectly with a once-daily Icelandair link to Dulles. However, Icelandair will resume Baltimore – which it started in 2018 – on May 13th on a three-weekly basis using 160-seat B737 MAX 8s, soon rising to four-weekly.

Meanwhile, it'll compete head-to-head with a 19-weekly Icelandair service to Boston, with twelve flights by the B737 MAX 8 and seven by the 262-seat B767-300ER. On particular days, PLAY and Icelandair will have four departures between Keflavik and Boston.

Icelandair Boeing 767-319(ER) TF-ISO (1)
Icelandair has used the B767-300ER to Boston since 2016. Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Simple Flying.

Why Baltimore and Boston?

WOW began North America in 2015, with Baltimore and Boston initially served. Sound familiar? Los Angeles, Montreal, Newark, San Francisco, and Toronto were all added the following year. By 2017, Chicago, Miami, and Pittsburgh entered the scene, while Cincinnati, Cleveland, Dallas, Detroit, New York JFK, Orlando, and St Louis appeared in 2018.

As WOW's end neared, its North America network was scaled back significantly. It once again focused on Baltimore and Boston – the two routes it launched with. This probably indicates the relative strength of the destinations, hence why PLAY is starting with them.

PLAY has said it wants to learn from WOW's mistakes. It doesn't intend to grow too fast or to have an extensive North American network. It'll likely focus only on destinations that have enough potential, in part based on WOW's experience, and which can be served on a 24-hour cycle, where one aircraft operates a daily round-trip from Keflavik to both wider Europe and North America.

PLAY inaugural flight
Baltimore and Boston were WOW's first and last US destinations. They'll also be the first for PLAY too. Photo: PLAY.

PLAY: a connection machine

PLAY is already more or less set up for a hub-and-spoke operation. From its existing schedule, it was possible to tell that its US flights would leave Keflavik around 15:00-15:30 and arrive home between 04:00-05:00 the following day.

Looking at PLAY's two-way connectivity over Keflavik to the US next summer, Berlin, Brussels, Copenhagen, Dublin, Gothenburg, London Stansted, Paris CDG, Stavanger, and Trondheim are all available.

Have you known a narrowbody across the North Atlantic? Share your experiences in the comments.