PLAY Expands North American Network with Hamilton as the Latest Destination

Keflavik to Hamilton has been launched by the Icelandic carrier PLAY. Hamilton is substantially less expensive, less crowded, and probably offers great incentives than Toronto Pearson.

Hamilton is closer to Buffalo, Niagara Falls, and some rather big Ontario communities than Toronto, which is about 52 miles (83 km) away. Although Europeans will be less aware of it, it is likely to result in lower fares and yields, which will be countered by lower expenses.

22nd June, PLAY departed for Hamilton, which is closer to Halifax than Vancouver is to Keflavik at 2,635 miles (4,241 kilometres). Although it doesn’t directly compete with anything, Icelandair’s double daily and Air Canada’s four weekly flights, which operate up to triple daily peak summer Pearson flights, do.

TF-PPE, a 180-seat Airbus A320neo, was used for the inaugural. The 0.7-year-old aircraft, which PLAY got in December, took 5h 27m to Hamilton and 5h 5m to return, according to Flightradar24.
At the time of writing, just the A320neo is slated, but if demand calls for it, the A321neo could take its place. The route runs daily, and its timetable is as follows, all times local:

• Hamilton to Keflavik: OG201, 15:10–17:30 (6h 20min block time).
• OG202, 18:50-04:35+1 (5h 45m), Hamilton to Keflavik

Nearly 14 months after PLAY’s first North American route began operations, Hamilton was launched. Baltimore was the first stop in 2022, then Boston on 11st May and Stewart for Greater NYC on 9th June. On 26th April 2023, Washington Dulles joined its network. Orlando was planned but cancelled, and as of 23rd June, no alternate location had been mentioned.

All routes are daily and run at the following times, much like Hamilton. Their coordination allows for two-way communication throughout more of Europe. For instance, TF-PPE was scheduled to arrive from Brussels at 13:45 and depart for Canada at 15:10. The next flight was to Athens at 06:00, arriving at the scheduled 04:35.

The now-defunct Flyglobespan appears to have operated 12 European services from Hamilton between 2007 and 2009: Belfast, Birmingham, Doncaster (since closed), Dublin, Edinburgh, Exeter, Glasgow, Liverpool, London Gatwick, Manchester, Newcastle, and Shannon. 737-800, 757-200, and 767-300ER aircraft were used.

Norwegian used 737-800 aircraft to fly 3,312 miles (5,331 kilometres) to Dublin for a few months in 2019. SATA International, now Azores Airlines, used to fly from Terceira to Oakland via Hamilton, albeit ostensibly solely for refuelling.