German leisure airline Condor will launch flights to Iceland for the first time. However, unlike virtually all other airlines, Condor won’t be flying to Keflavik (KEF), the country’s major international hub.
Condor launching Akureyri & Egilsstaðir flights
Condor has announced that it will serve two destinations in Iceland as of May 2023 — Akureyri in the north of the country, and Egilsstaðir in the east of the country. Both flights will be operated by Airbus A320s.
Condor will operate once weekly flights between Frankfurt (FRA) and Akureyri (AEY). The flight will operate on Saturdays, with the following schedule:
DE1110 Frankfurt to Akureyri departing 8:45PM arriving 10:30PM
DE1111 Akureyri to Frankfurt departing 11:40PM arriving 5:10AM (+1 day)
The flight will cover a distance of 1,439 miles, and is blocked at 3hr45min westbound and 3hr30min eastbound.
Condor will operate once weekly flights between Frankfurt (FRA) and Egilsstaðir (EGS). The flight will operate on Tuesdays, with the following schedule:
DE1026 Frankfurt to Egilsstaðir departing 8:45PM arriving 10:20PM
DE1027 Egilsstaðir to Frankfurt departing 11:55PM arriving 5:10AM (+1 day)
The flight will cover a distance of 1,340 miles, and is blocked at 3hr35min westbound and 3hr15min eastbound.
What makes these Condor flights to Iceland awesome
There are a couple of things that I love about this route announcement.
First of all, can we stop for a moment and give Condor kudos for the amazing aircraft utilization here? Most of Condor’s A320 fleet can’t fly overnight, given curfews at many airports in Europe. So the airline managed to launch these routes probably with no opportunity cost when it comes to aircraft utilization. That’s pretty cool in and of itself.
Beyond that, though, it’s exciting to see Condor expanding to two airports that don’t otherwise get much service:
- Akureyri has limited international service, though an airline startup named Nice Air is based here, and is starting to offer international flights
- Egilsstaðir doesn’t have any international air service, but rather only has a turboprop flight from Reykjavik (RKV)
It’s cool to see this kind of creativity with new point-to-point routes. In fairness, this is something that Condor has long excelled at — this is the same airline that flies between Frankfurt and Whitehorse, for example.
In this case Condor is also getting incentives from both airports, which I imagine makes the decision to operate these routes even easier.
While you can book tickets directly on these flights, it’s noted that these routes are being added in response to requests from tour operators, so it sounds like that’s a main motivator for these routes. Both of these cities are located on the popular ring road, but travelers can experience that a bit differently by not starting or ending in Keflavik.
Bottom line
Condor is launching flights to Iceland for the first time. Rather than flying to Keflavik, the airline will instead fly to Akureyri and Egilsstaðir, which are two destinations that otherwise have very limited air service. It’s awesome to see Condor’s continued creativity with its destinations. Rather than just following the competition, the airline largely charts its own course.
What do you make of Condor’s new routes to Iceland?
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