The Icelandic low-cost airline PLAY announced the launch of its seasonal flights between Reykjavik and Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, thus opening a new and key gateway for connectivity between that country and North America.
While Iceland has worked hard – and successfully – over the last decade to position itself as a tourist destination in its own right (with airlines like PLAY offering stopovers at no extra cost), the essence of local airlines like PLAY continues to be to use Reykjavik as a hub to distribute passengers between Europe and North America at very competitive rates.
PLAY will offer a weekly flight (on Saturdays) between Vilnius and Reykjavik, with the first operation scheduled for May 25th. The route will be maintained during the summer.
«It’s no secret that Iceland and Lithuania have had a long-distance love affair for over thirty years, or since Iceland supported the Baltic independence. That is why we are so happy to be able to offer the residents of Vilnius our flights to Iceland. It is also no secret that we offer competitive prices everywhere we go, so we hope we will strengthen the bond between these two great nations even further with our services this summer,» said PLAY’s CEO, Birgir Jónsson.
PLAY’s network in North America includes Baltimore, Boston, New York, Washington, and Toronto. Its fleet consists of six A320neo and four A321neo.
Flights in Vilnius
Vilnius currently does not have transatlantic services, and this type of traffic is mainly channeled through other European hubs such as Amsterdam (AirBaltic), Stockholm (SAS), Paris-CDG (AirBaltic), Copenhagen (SAS), Frankfurt (Lufthansa), Warsaw (LOT) or Helsinki (Finnair).
According to data obtained by Aviacionline through Cirium, the flight offer in Vilnius during February is composed as follows:
- Finnair: 27 weekly flights to Helsinki.
- AirBaltic: Amsterdam (7x), Paris-CDG (3x), Dubai (2x), Gran Canaria (1x), Munich (5x), Riga (26x), Tenerife-Reinasofía (3x), Tallinn (3x), and Turin (1x).
- Norwegian: Oslo (3x)
- Ryanair: Barcelona (3x), Berlin (2x), Milan-BGY (3x), Bremen (2x), Paris-BVA (3x), Eindhoven (3x), Rome-FCO (4x), London-LTN (5x), Malta (3x), Nuremberg (2x), Oslo (4x), London-STN (8x), Turin (2x), Venice (2x), and Vienna (2x).
- Lufthansa: Frankfurt (13x)
- LOT: London-LCY (5x) and Warsaw (34x).
- SWISS: Zurich (3x)
- Austrian Airlines: Vienna (3x)
- SAS: Stockholm (12x) and Copenhagen (19x)
- Brussels Airlines: Brussels (4x)
- Turkish Airlines: Istanbul (14x)
- Wizzair: Malaga (2x), Barcelona (4x), Paris-BVA (3x), Dortmund (2x), Eindhoven (4x), Rome-FCO (3x), Lyon-GNB (1x), Kutaisi (2x), Larnaca (3x), London-LTN (5x), Milan-MXP (5x), and Tel Aviv (2x).
