By Farah Mokrani
Copyright euroweeklynews
The skies between Spain and Iceland just got a lot emptier.
Low-cost Icelandic airline PLAY has gone bust, announcing on September 29 that it was ceasing all operations with immediate effect. The news spells an abrupt end to its flights linking Alicante-Elche airport with ReykjavÃk, and leaves thousands of travellers wondering what happens next.
From ambitious growth to sudden failure
PLAY’s fall has echoes of WOW Air’s spectacular demise in 2019. Like WOW, PLAY promised cheap tickets and bold expansion, but its finances never kept pace with its ambitions. After a shaky 2025, the airline tried to reinvent itself by focusing less on transatlantic travel and more on sun-and-sand destinations around Europe.
That meant cutting back flights to the United States and dropping several short-haul city routes. On paper, the strategy made sense. In reality, it only bought the airline a little time. Bookings dried up, losses piled on, and a constant stream of bad headlines chipped away at passenger trust. By September, confidence had collapsed entirely – and so did PLAY.
At Alicante-Elche, the airline’s absence will be felt. PLAY had built a steady presence, running up to five flights a week in the summer season, and was preparing to keep three weekly departures this winter. That’s now history.
Fewer options for travellers
The collapse leaves Icelandair as the only year-round carrier connecting Alicante with Iceland. The flag carrier had already been quietly ramping up its Spanish services, and insiders say it’s likely to benefit most from PLAY’s downfall.
There’s also Italy’s Neos, which will continue to operate a weekly summer flight from ReykjavÃk to Alicante, mostly for package holidaymakers. Individual tickets are sold on its website, but the service isn’t designed to match the flexibility PLAY once offered.
For now, anyone hoping for the same level of affordable connectivity between the Costa Blanca and Iceland will be disappointed. According to 2024 figures, PLAY carried more than 60,000 passengers on the route – around 61 per cent of the total market. That gap won’t be filled overnight.
What this means for Alicante and beyond
For the airport and the wider Costa Blanca region, PLAY’s disappearance is more than just a cancelled flight schedule – it’s a reminder of how fragile the low-cost sector can be. Airlines can rise quickly, flood destinations with visitors, and then vanish just as fast.
Local tourism experts fear that Iceland’s market could shrink without PLAY’s capacity. While Icelandair can step up, fewer seats usually mean higher prices and less choice for travellers. And with the German giant Lufthansa and Italy’s Neos focused on their own restructuring battles, there’s no obvious new entrant waiting in the wings.
The Costa Blanca had come to rely on Icelandic visitors, not only in summer but in shoulder seasons too. Hoteliers and tour operators now face the prospect of a dip in numbers, unless another airline decides to seize the opportunity.
For passengers, though, the lesson is clear: budget airlines can be a gamble. PLAY sold itself as a fresh alternative, and for a while it worked. But just like WOW Air before it, the dream was always running on borrowed time.
