Icelandic airline PLAY has reported its first quarter 2024 results, highlighting that its earnings were ‘heavily impacted by a drop in demand following the inaccurate global news coverage on seismic activity in the Reykjanes Peninsula in Q4 2023’. Its earnings before income and taxes were -$20.4 million. However, PLAY reported a significant revenue increase of 66% between years, rising from $33 million in Q1 2023 to $54 million in Q1 2024.
“This is a true sign of how our airline is gaining market share,” highlighted CEO Einar Örn Ólafsson, adding that “demand started picking up drastically in January 2024” (including “record sales days in Q1”).
Q1 2024 also saw the cost per available seat kilometre decrease 8% year-on-year, part of the airline’s focus on keeping its business “lean”. Ancillary revenue per passenger also rose 22% from $41 to $50, helping the total operating revenue rise year on year of 21.7% ($32.7 million in Q1 2023 to $54.4 million in Q1 2024), despite a 19.7% increase in operating expenses.
PLAY carried 349,000 passengers in Q1 2024, a 64% rise year on year, helped by a fleet increase of two aircraft (bringing its total aircraft to ten at the end of Q1 2024). Despite challenging Icelandic weather conditions in Q1, “we saw an exceptional on-time performance of 87.8%, which is above our target of 85% on-time performance for the full year,” highlighted Ólafsson.
PLAY: Q1 2024 earnings negatively impacted by ‘inaccurate’ coverage of volcanic activity
