Fly Play hf. reported operating results for the month of December and full year of 2022. PLAY carried 74,620 passengers in December 2022 which is more than four times the number of passengers PLAY carried in December 2021. The load factor in December was 82.8% compared to a 79.1% load factor in November. Routes to and from London, Paris, and the Canary Islands were very popular with a load factor of around 90 percent. PLAYÆs load factor in December was higher than all other publicly listed airlines in Scandinavia, showing the effectiveness of the PLAY network and its commercial activity. 29% of the passengers were traveling from Iceland, 31% were traveling to Iceland and 40% were connecting passengers (VIA). In December, 71.9% of PLAYÆs flights arrived on schedule. On-time performance (OTP) was lower than usual due to challenging weather conditions. Severe weather and the closure of the airport in Iceland just before Christmas had a negative impact on PLAYÆs operations and financial performance in the month.
In 2022, 36% of passengers were traveling from Iceland and are delighted with the reception that PLAY has received in the home market. Since January 2022, PLAYÆs share of Icelanders traveling abroad has been close to 25% based on numbers published by the Icelandic Tourist Board and much higher in some key months. In 2022 PLAY flew 789,151 passengers on more than 5,400 flights. Considering that July was the first month of PLAYÆs full hub-and-spoke operations and most of the destinations were new to the network, and consider the passenger numbers for the year to be more than satisfactory and in line with stated target for the year. The same can be said about the full-year load factor which was 79.9% and increased by 50% between years. On-time performance for the full year was at 87%. In 2022, PLAY served 25 destinations in Europe and North America, but in 2023 they will be nearly 40 using ten A320/1neo aircraft.