Play Airlines pulled out of Canadian market leaving passengers in the lurch

Discount air carrier Play Airlines has quietly pulled out of the Canadian market, less than two years after launching.

 

The Icelandic airline initially launched its Canadian business in the summer of 2023, flying from Hamilton’s John C. Munro Airport to several cities in Europe, via its hub in Reykjavik.

 

The airline recently informed airport officials that its final flight out of Hamilton will be on April 22.

 

“I can confirm that, unfortunately, Play Airlines will end its service from John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport as of April 22, 2025,” airport spokesperson Colleen Ryan said in an emailed statement. “While we are disappointed with this decision, we remain confident in the future of Hamilton International.”

 

Play did not immediately respond to several requests for comment.

The move has left travellers who booked flights with the airline that depart after April 22 in the lurch.

 

Linda Knisley had been planning a trip to Iceland and Germany for this summer, and had booked car reservations as well as accommodations. Finding an alternative for her flights to Reykjavik and then Hamburg will be expensive, she said, and she’s worried she’ll lose the money for her other arrangements if she can’t find an affordable flight. Her sister had been planning to join her for the Icelandic portion of their trip.

 

“My flight to Hamburg with a 10-day stopover was going to be $1,300. Now I’m looking at $1,700 with Icelandair or Air Canada with multiple stops … (My sister’s) flight is going to be double, $1,000 per person versus a $500 deal she got on Black Friday,” said Knisley, who only noticed her May flight had been cancelled when she was double-checking her schedule online.

 

“I’m just hoping they let us know soon what, if anything, they are planning on doing, so we can continue planning our trip,” said Knisley. “We are at a standstill.”

 

Passenger rights advocate Gabor Lukacs said passengers are entitled to be rebooked on another flight, as mandated by Canada’s Air Passenger Protection Regulations, the Montreal Convention governing international air travel and European Union regulations.

 

“Rather than accepting a refund, they should call the airline and demand rebooking on an alternative flight. If the airline refuses, then they should buy a replacement ticket and take the airline to small claims court,” said Lukacs, president and founder of Air Passenger Rights. “It’s not going to be quick or easy, but it’s doable.”

 

While the lure of cheaper fares might be tempting, it can sometimes be risky to buy them, especially from relatively small airlines like Play, said air industry expert John Gradek.

 

“Whenever you try a new carrier in the marketplace, unless they’ve been elsewhere for decades, it’s buyer beware,” said Gradek, a former Air Canada executive and head of McGill University’s Global Aviation Leadership Program. “If there’s no money being made, they’ll be out of there in a hurry.”

 

With lacklustre financial results announced by Play in October, the airline decided to pull back from some of its North American routes and focus on bringing Icelandic customers to Southern Europe, Gradek said.

 

“This was a strategic decision. They were really a bit player here,” said Gradek.

After announcing its October results, Play CEO Einar Orn Olafsson said the airline’s “hub and spoke” model of flying people from North American cities into Reykjavik and then onwards to their final European destinations wasn’t turning out to be as successful as they hoped.

 

“The point-to-point part of Play’s schedule, primarily flights between Iceland and Southern Europe, has been popular and profitable from the beginning. However, as previously reported, the airline’s yields on its hub-and-spoke part of the business across the Atlantic has been disappointing, particularly in 2024,” Olafsson said in October.

 

“As a result, we have decided to adjust our business model … We will focus on the aspects of our business that have proven both successful and profitable — namely, transporting passengers between Southern Europe and Iceland.”

 

The halt also comes amid a narrowing of the low-cost carrier field after Lynx Air filed for creditor protection last February and WestJet folded Swoop into its mainline operation in 2023.

 

 

 

 

This article was first reported by The Star