PLAY Airlines Reports Record Results

PLAY has announced a USD 5.2 million profit for the third quarter of 2023, representing a significant improvement from 2022.

Additionally, the company has posted several other vital results.

Crunching The Numbers At PLAY

PLAY recorded a net loss of USD 2.9 million for the third quarter of 2022, attributing a challenging climate to the loss.

However, PLAY has been able to significantly improve with the turning of a profit in the third quarter of 2023, reaching USD 5.2 million.

Total revenue also increased 84% year-on-year. The company says revenues for the third quarter of 2023 reached USD 110.2 million. This was up from the reported USD 59.9 million for the same quarter one year prior.

Meanwhile, earnings before EBIT in the third quarter also increased almost tenfold. Moving from USD 1.3 million in 2022 to USD 12.9 million for Q3 2023.

PLAY’s Fantastic Passenger Growth

PLAY also reported substantial increases across its passenger numbers, representing strong growth.

In the third quarter, it broke its previous record for passengers carried in one month.

This record was smashed in July when the airline carried 191,577 passengers with a load factor of 91.1%.

Meanwhile, revenue per available seat kilometre increased 9% to 6.1 US cents in the quarter.

PLAY says its third-quarter operation saw 33 destinations in the quarter with an on-time performance across the board of 85.1%. Meanwhile, load factor stood at 88.4%.

Comments From PLAY CEO

We are all very proud of our financial and operational results for the third quarter and especially of the fact that PLAY generated a net profit of 5.2 million USD, the first-ever quarterly net profit since our inaugural flight in June 2021.  Operational profit grew tenfold from the same quarter last year, revenues were up 84%, and passenger numbers increased by 74%, quite remarkable facts and a testament to a well-performing business model and a great team of professionals.

Birgir Jónsson, CEO

PLAY has been on a very steep growth trajectory as we have been increasing our fleet size, expanding our network, and welcoming many new Players to our team. Growth is expensive, and it is, therefore, a notable achievement that we have been able to increase our unit revenues and grow our ancillary revenues at the same time, resulting in a strong net profit and a healthy cash position. We do not plan to grow as much next year but will focus on optimizing and stabilizing our operation and increasing our profitability before we commence our next growth phase in 2025, which will see more aircraft, some of whom have already been secured, and a more extensive and denser network.

Birgir Jónsson, CEO

Future Outlook

PLAY says its future outlook for the remainder of the year remains unchanged from its guidance released at the end of September.

The outlook says PLAY will carry 1.5 million passengers in 2023 with EBIT around negative USD 10 million.

The belief also exists that PLAY will be able to generate some USD 280 million in total revenue for the entire 2023 calendar year.