Review: What It’s Like to Fly ‘Play’ to Europe

Ever since Icelandair first burst on the scene with cheap transatlantic flights in the 1960s—earning it the nickname of “hippie express”—Iceland has been a waystation for budget travelers hopping the pond. While the deals are often irresistible, doubts crept in about the risks of flying to Iceland on the cheap when in 2019, another Icelandic low-cost carrier, Wow, went bust in spite of (or perhaps because of) stunts like $49 fares from the United States to Europe. Thousands of travelers were stranded and, as the saying goes, the optics were not good. Some even pegged a subsequent downturn in tourism to the country to the collapse of Wow. A few half-hearted attempts to revive the remains of that company, including a bid from Icelandair, failed.

But that’s not the end of the story. Enter Play Airlines, the latest startup from the island nation to revive the notion that yes, you can cross the Atlantic for less than you’d pay for your first hotel night (currently fares start at $160 one way from the U.S. to Europe for summer and fall flights).

So it should come as no surprise that Play, like Wow, is using narrowbody Airbus planes (painted in a bright red livery), many Wow crew, and the expertise of some executives from its predecessor, who are probably wiser after the demise of Wow. The new airline scooped up those assets and launched last year with flights to London Stansted.

Starting with flights from Baltimore/Washington…