Icelandair is known for its creative business model of one-stop connectivity between North America and Europe via Iceland, thanks to the advantageous geography of its home base. The airline has just announced a new destination, which is kind of outside the carrier’s typical expansion strategy.
Continue reading: Icelandair Adds Istanbul Flights, Partners With Turkish Airlines
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
This is more for locals, given TK already flies to multiple destinations in North America. I doubt many would want two stops in KEF and IST unless the fare was very attractive and considering the differences in product. FI is buy in board on economy.
I agree. Unless you like in Halifax, NS this connecting flight does nothing for you.
By locals you mean anyone in Asia or Africa who wants to travel to Iceland? NA isn’t everyone’s destination.
Guess Icelandair might join SA soon and then Lufthansa will add Icelandair to their takeover wishlist?
That'd be great, cut-price business class from Europe to Canada/US and a bunch of *A miles thrown in.
The population of Iceland is under 400,000 with under 3000 Asians, 6000 Polish and Ukrainian, and around 5000 from other countries. The vast majority of people travelling via KEF are between Europe to North America. The population isn’t large enough to support that much traffic elsewhere.
This makes a lot of sense.
Destination popularity is cyclical and fickle. 16 years ago, virtually no one went to Iceland. Today it's almost cliche as a cross-Atlantic destination.
At some point, a decrease in arrivals from the west will need to be offset by an increase in arrivals from the east.
I don’t really understand the timing… are they trying to cater to TK metal flights? The majority of eastward traffic into KEF land in the early morning and the westbound traffic from KEF takes off around late afternoon-early evening…
That doesn't change the fact it's a rich country which is also developing as a tourist destination. I don't see why it couldn't sustain a route to one of the biggest cities in the world which also happens to be a hub that can easily get passengers to pretty much anywhere in the Balkans, Asia, or Africa.
European airlines with medium/longhaul routes are largely of two kinds: those that are strictly transatlantic, and those with plenty of service to Asia. Icelandair has thus far belonged firmly to the former category, along with Aer Lingus, Air Europa, Iberia and TAP Air Portugal. These airlines are almost never going to fly any further east than IST or DXB (or TLV, in prewar times). That’s in contrast to the likes of LH, AF, BA, KLM, Swiss, Austrian and Finnair, which have quite the Asian route network.
So it’s good to see at least one airline from the transatlantic don’t-look-east group to add a slightly easterly destination for once!
If I'm not mistaken, Reykjavik is designed to have no transfer security? From what I could recall, all non-Schengen arrivals deposit onto the same floor as the non-Schengen departures. How will this Turkey flight fit into the airport layout? Will they just accept Turkish security standards?
If you can "visualise yourself flying Qsuites or Air France or JAL or something of that kind! ;)" while flying Copa, then why not "visualise yourself flying Aer Lingus or Air Europa or Iberia or something of that kind! 😉 while flying Big Three European carriers to the East?
Why would you lecture others your wisdom when you don't even understand that?
This is a smart move and good for people living in Iceland. Not really any one stop routes from Reykjavík to a lot of destinations outside of Europe eastwards so I think this will be quite successful - not to mention for boosting tourism from visitors from Asia.
You really, absolutely delight in searching for all my latest comments and trying to use the same expression every time, and you think you’ll gain a mass fan following?
As they say: get a life!
Sorry, meant to reply this to @Mason, not you. It’s a wonder not many have caught him out the way they have Tim Dunn for his repetitiveness.
You really, absolutely delight in searching for all my latest comments and trying to use the same expression every time, and you think you’ll gain a mass fan following?
As they say: get a life!
You really, absolutely delight in searching for all my latest comments and trying to use the same expression every time
Whenever Ben posts something, you happen to be there. So maybe it would be correct to say "I really, absolutely delight in searching for all Ben's latest comments and trying to use my mind to either play victim or denounce Korea", don't you think?
and you think you’ll gain a mass fan following?
No worries, I've got enough friends and fans offline. It's just that whatever you write just make me cringe.
As they say: get a life!
Bet I have a busier life than yours. How about you get a life and stop play victim?
Honestly so far I thought TravelinPenis or Watson is the worst guy I've seen on this website.
But honestly, you by the very name of Proximanova or VT-CIE put those two ret*rds into a shame.
Put pressure on Ben to take a trip that let everyone besides YOU down, then mock him by infamous quote "visualise yourself flying Qsuites or Air France or JAL or something of that kind! ;)" after it turns out that Copa experience was an absolute dogsh*t, and proceed to play victim after the anger about your selfish (or so Indian-ish) action.
Even a preschooler would know that YOU are the only as*hole here.
Peace.
Two can play at that game. If you can self-like your comments, so can I. And I’ve got a new confidant in Aerob13a, who like me would rather appreciate the insight that Ben, Sean M. and their kind bring with their expertise than waste any further time with you.
And it’s an honour for you to have compared me with TravelinWilly, another commenter I admire. Thank you for that. 🙂
Imagine a pedophile poop freak BA apologist being your confidant, and a brainwashed liberal being your admired mentor.
No wonder why you think that "visualise yourself flying Qsuites or Air France or JAL or something of that kind! ;)" or justifying because "my username is an ordinary, no-frills Air India A320neo, and not a luxurious A380 or something, because international travel can sometimes consist of very non-glamorous products and it’s your choice to accept them or not." is the solution to all air travel problems.
So thank you confirming that you're just yet another brainwashed commenter of OMAAT.
As an aside, this will provide people in the Balkans, Africa and Asia easy access to Greenland.