Iceland's Budget Career Play secured a certificate of Maltese Airlines operators from the country's civil aviation regulator.
Play is seeking approval as part of its strategy to diversify its operations and is taking advantage of the opportunity to lease its fleet.
The carrier has set up Europe, a subsidiary that will take part in the fleet of 10 Airbus A320neo-Family jets.
These are used to operate services across cities in mainland Europe on behalf of other airlines.
It has already transferred the initial A321neo (TF-AEW) that has been placed in the Maltese register as a 9H-PEA.
Play says it has reached an agreement to lease three Maltese registered aircraft to Eastern European airlines.
“These leasing projects will create play profitability in line with previous forecasts and make the company more predictable and stable in order to show a positive financial outlook,” says Einar Orn Olafsson CEO.
He says the AOC was obtained earlier than planned.
“The pilot and senior cabin crew will become PlayEurope employees and be employed and based in a country run by borrowers,” Career says.
Reykjavik-based Play is away from hub-and-spoke operations to focus on point-to-point services after facing increasing competition and capabilities in the transatlantic market.
