New Icelandic airline plans June launch after two-year hiatus

Iceland will get a new airline next month as startup Play Air seeks to capitalize on the North Atlantic island’s recovery from the coronavirus crisis and inclusion on the U.K.’s green list for quarantine-free travel. The launch of flights to seven European cities from June 24 comes almost two years after Play was first conceived as a successor to Wow Air Hf, with several of its top executives having worked at the defunct discounter. The new venture is planning a rapid listing to raise as much as $20 million to fund U.S. routes. Play Air will launch with a single Airbus SE A321neo narrow-body followed by a further two before the end of July, leased from Dublin-based AerCap Holdings NV and previously operated by Mexico’s bankrupt Interjet. Three more jets will arrive next year to serve American cities and provide a one-stop link between the US and Europe, CEO Birgir Jonsson said. “People learned a lot from the mistakes that were made at Wow,” said Jonsson, a former chief operating officer and deputy CEO at the failed carrier. “The idea is to utilize the experience the team gained there and mix it with new business and management experience to do things differently.”<br/>