ORLANDO, Fla. – A new Iceland-based airline plans to launch service this year between Orlando International Airport and regions including Iceland, Europe, and Scandinavia.

What You Need To Know

  • Low cost carrier PLAY plans to launch service this year between MCO and regions including Iceland, Europe, and Scandinavia

  • Orlando will be only the fourth U.S. city with PLAY service

  • PLAY’s first flight is expected to arrive in Orlando September 30

  • PLAY will join a growing list of airlines operating service between Orlando and Europe 

Low cost carrier PLAY is scheduling seasonal flights September 2022 through April 2023.

The schedule includes service between Orlando International Airport and various cities including London (England), Paris (France), Copenhagen (Denmark), Dublin (Ireland), Berlin (Germany), and Gothenburg (Sweden) via Reykjavik, Iceland.

Orlando will be only the fourth U.S. city with PLAY service, in addition to New York, Boston, and Baltimore.

PLAY CEO Birgir Jónsson said Central Florida’s tourism industry is a significant reason why they picked MCO for service.

“PLAY is strategically growing its presence in the United States, and our decision to accelerate the addition of this route is driven by increasing consumer confidence in and demand for affordable travel,” Jónsson said in a statement to Spectrum News. “We anticipate this route to be popular with European passengers seeking to escape the cold winter to experience Florida’s popular parks and resorts, as well as with American travelers visiting Europe to see family for the holidays or to our festivals and winter attractions.”

Tourists from overseas typically make up a significant share of Florida’s visitor count.

TRAVELERS RETURN
VISIT FLORIDA announced the Sunshine State surpassed pre-pandemic tourism levels in 2021 with more than 118 million domestic visitors. While last year only saw 4 million overseas and 500,000 Canadian visitors, tourism leaders remain optimistic.

That optimism is planted in 2019 pre-pandemic data that counted at that time 9.8 million overseas and 4 million Canadian visitors to Florida.

Many overseas visitors often come to Central Florida for weeks at a time, spending more than traditional domestic visitors

Orlando International Airport ranked as the 7th busiest airport in the U.S. in 2021 with more than 40.3 million passengers. MCO and Miami International Airport (10th at 37.3 million passengers) are the only Florida airports in the top 10.

MCO said international traffic was up 20.51% in 2021, boosted by 1.9 million passengers coming to Central Florida after the lifting of travel restrictions in Britain and Brazil.

PLAY DATES
PLAY’s first flight is expected to arrive in Orlando September 30, with departing flights scheduled for Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays beginning October 1, 2022. Inbound PLAY flights are planned for Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

PLAY will join a growing list of airlines operating service between Orlando and Europe. Other European-focused carriers at MCO include Icelandair, British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, Lufthansa, Aer Lingus, as well as Emirates, and Edelweiss, among others.

AIRPORT EXPANSION
The addition of new international service also comes as Orlando International Airport nears completion of its multi-billion dollar terminal expansion project.

The new $3 billion “Terminal C” is the largest expansion project in the airport’s history.

MCO announced this week the project is now 90% complete, and remains on pace for a July 2022 opening.

JetBlue will be an anchor airline in the new terminal, which will add 15 gates, allowing the airport to accommodate 10-12 million additional passengers annually.

The new Terminal C also includes an intermodal station where Brightline is building its Orlando hub. Brightline is scheduled to begin operating its near high speed rail service between Orlando and South Florida in early 2023.