Iceland's two largest airlines just can't stop growing. A bit over a week ago I wrote about how WOW Air is adding 3x weekly flights between Iceland and Dallas as of May 2018. Well, they're not alone. Icelandair will also be adding 4x weekly flights between Iceland and Dallas as of May 2018. Icelandair's new…
Continue reading: Icelandair Is Adding Flights To Dallas As Of May 2018
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Surprised they are trying to compete head on more than trying to avoid each other across some US destination. I don't think some markets will be able to support two carriers to Iceland, especially at an AA hub like DFW that will likely drop fares on Europe routes.
Eventually someone is going to look at Phoenix and say, "hmm, maybe they could use a few more transats. Condor 2xweekly is a start but where's the PHX love?
If only foreign airlines could fly domestic North American flights instead of being parked all day at the airport we would be better off.
What with the Wright Ammendment and the lack of Immigration and Customs facilities at Love Field, I assume you mean DFW? People on the western side of the Metroplex get touchy about such things ...
The airport (KEF) is not keeping up. Seating is limited and Icelandair is using a lot of remote stands, even for major routes. The Saga lounge is quite nice, though.
DFW isn't charging Icelandair (nor any other airline for that matter) to park their airline over night.
Regardless, the utilization remains terrible.
Lots of open concrete at DFE free for the taking.
Surely the key to this is aircraft costs - almost zero thanks to FI's policy of using fully amortized 757s? Cost of leaving one on the ground is trivial compared with, for example, the pair of Qantas A380s that used to pass the day from 0600 to 2100 at Heathrow.
Much cheaper than positioning crew to DFW etc.
They finished a new extension at Keflavik this year and moved the Saga class lounge to a bigger area. For flights to the UK , there are no passport or extra security checks so it's very painless. Even entering Schengen is pretty painless.
I used to use the SEA flight a lot -- the Icelandair station manager told me that they used the 23 hours on the ground there for maintenance as KEF has limited capacity to maintain the fleet. Given it's an all-Boeing airline, I suppose it makes sense
Their growth is a bubble, and either a fuel-price spike or a complication with KEF facilities will burst it.
Also, I would've thought an eight-hour flight in a narrowbody's economy class would be a deal-breaker for most people, but America keeps surprising me with how low it can go. Still, these two airlines have some issues with fleet age/capacity/comfort that will surely increase as their visibility grows and the quirk-factor wears off.
Maybe they're doing specific maintenance during the 20 hours idle and will rotate the planes flying there through their fleet.