Passenger numbers grew by 61% to 100 thousand, and 75% Load Factor in January
PLAY airlines carried 99,704 passengers in January 2024, which is a 61% increase from January 2023 when PLAY carried 61,798 passengers. The load factor in January 2024 was 75% compared to 77% in January 2023. PLAY had reported the demand for flights to Iceland had been affected negatively in the short term by the inaccurate global news coverage of the seismic activity in the Reykjanes Peninsula in November 2023. The load factor will improve from February onwards as forward bookings look very strong.
After experiencing lower short-term demand, PLAY is now seeing a significant increase in demand, with the year starting well with record sales weeks. Forward bookings are looking promising and showing great improvement year on year for 2024. Ancillary Yield is also growing, with January experiencing a notable 21% increase year on year.
Of all passengers traveling with PLAY in January 2024, 27.1% were traveling from Iceland, 31.1% were traveling to Iceland and 41.8% were connecting passengers (VIA).
PLAY's on-time performance in January was 78.1%, negatively impacted by adverse weather conditions in Iceland.
New destination, the launch of Stopover and Europe's youngest fleet
In January, PLAY announced flights to Split in Croatia. PLAY's first flight to Split will be on May 28 and flights will be operated once a week until October. This will be the first time that scheduled flights are operated between Iceland and Split and this is also PLAY's first destination in Croatia. PLAY's route network will include around 40 destinations in 2024.
In late January, it was announced that passengers can now book themselves an up to 10-day Stopover in Iceland with no additional cost. PLAY already offers competitive prices in all its markets and this new feature gives passengers even more reason to choose PLAY. This makes the airline more competitive and will further exploit PLAY's strategic connecting flights between North America and Europe with Iceland as a hub in the middle.
PLAY airlines won ch-aviation's award Europe's Youngest Aircraft Fleet for the second year in a row, which was announced in January. PLAY operates a fleet of 10 Airbus A320/321neo's with the average age of only 3.51 years. PLAY is dedicated to maintaining a young and modern fleet which directly contributes to fuel efficiency and a safe and reliable journey for its passengers.
PLAY will publish its annual results on February 8. Investor presentation webcast will be live February 9, 2024, at 8:30 AM GMT.
