Tuesday, September 30, 2025

Wow Air Network, 2015


 Continuing the wake for PLAY, here we see the fullest extent of its predecessor, the Barney-purple world of WOW Air. Thinner than either its successor or its flag-carrier rival, Icelandair, with only 2 routes across the Atlantic, to Boston and Washington-Dulles. Like the other two, familiar outstations include Tenerife, Salzburg, and Warsaw, while WOW's unique reach included Lyon and Vilnius


Monday, September 29, 2025

Farewell to Icelandic PLAY Airlines, 2025


 

A billboard at Keflavík Airport, advertising the route system of ultra-low-cost airline PLAY as it appeared in September 2024. Heavy on continental Europe, with significant overlap of its flag-carrier rival Icelandair to Span and Scandinavia, but with a handful of unique outstations including Athens, Bologna, Lisbon, Liverpool, Porto, and Venice

The service to "New York" was actually to Stewart International Airport in Newburgh some 60 miles north of what most people consider the destination "New York" to be; likewise the flight to "Toronto" was actually to John C. Monro Airport in Hamilton, Ontario—not the better known hubs served by Icelandair (both of these smaller airports making their Timetablist debut with this post). The Canadian operation ended in the Spring of 2025 as PLAY liquidated its transatlantic operations. 

Whatever the commercial attempts undertaken to differentiate itself, PLAY went the way of purple predecessor WOW Air and is no longer with us