Exciting: Icelandair Launching Miami Flights With Airbus A321LR

Nearly a year ago, Icelandair announced that it would finally add service to my home airport, which I’m excited about. This route is finally launching tomorrow, so I want to provide an update, as the carrier has actually extended the season for this route, compared to what was initially planned.

Icelandair adding Reykjavik to Miami route

As of October 25, 2025, Icelandair is launching 3x weekly flights between Keflavik (KEF) and Miami (MIA). This is a winter seasonal flight, operating through May 2, 2026 (interestingly, initially the route was supposed to operate through late March, so it has already been extended a bit). The service will operate with the following schedule:

FI691 Keflavik to Miami departing 5:15PM arriving 9:55PM
FI690 Miami to Keflavik departing 6:15PM arriving 5:55AM (+1 day)

The 3,664-mile flight is blocked at 8hr40min westbound and 7hr40min eastbound. It operates westbound on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, and eastbound on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays.

Icelandair is using an Airbus A321LR for the flight, which is the carrier’s newest aircraft. This is equipped with 187 seats, including 22 business class seats and 165 economy seats.

One thing I love about Icelandair is that the airline generally has attractive Saga Class fares (which is the carrier’s premium cabin — think of it as being more like premium economy, or like domestic class within the United States).

Fares are consistently quite attractive, and best of all, you can have a stopover in Iceland at no extra cost. So as an example, you could fly from Oslo to Miami via Keflavik, and have a stopover of several days in Iceland. That’s a great opportunity, and something I’m taking advantage of on a trip in the near future.

My take on Icelandair adding Miami flights

Miami is Icelandair’s 19th destination in North America. This is Icelandair’s first time operating regularly scheduled service to Miami. In Florida, the airline otherwise serves Orlando (MCO) year-round. Icelandair also briefly served Tampa (TPA), but unfortunately that service didn’t last, and was cut before the pandemic.

While Icelandair hasn’t operated regularly scheduled service to Miami in the past, it won’t be the carrier’s first time flying to the airport. In recent years, we’ve seen Icelandair operate some charter flights (particularly to Cuba) out of Miami, as a way to utilize aircraft during the slower winter season.

Icelandair’s business model is largely about connecting North America and Europe via its conveniently located hub in Keflavik. So why hasn’t Icelandair flown to Miami until now?

I suspect there are a couple of factors at play. For one, Icelandair has just been growth constrained, since the airline is pretty conservative with expanding its fleet (for good reason). Furthermore, Icelandair’s recent expansion has largely been focused on adding service to secondary cities that don’t necessarily have that much transatlantic competition, because it’s where they have the biggest competitive advantage.

Beyond that, the A321LR is a new aircraft for Icelandair, and opens up some new markets. While Icelandair flies the 737 MAX to Orlando, I believe that Miami might be pushing the range for that aircraft. It’s always hard to know for sure, since an aircraft’s practical range includes many considerations. But I think Orlando was right at the cusp, while Miami might just be a bit too far.

Some people may be surprised by Icelandair’s horrible aircraft utilization on this route, as the plane is parked on the ground in Miami for around 20 hours with each trip.

This is because Icelandair’s route network is based so heavily around optimizing connections between North America and Europe, so the priority is that all flights are timed to maximize connections in Iceland. Icelandair would rather have a plane sit idle for 20 hours in order to ensure that it’s optimized for connections.

Since this is one of Icelandair’s longer routes to North America, this is the only option for getting this service to line up with the standard bank of flights.

What’s also interesting is that this will be Icelandair’s first route to North America that only operates in winter. Otherwise, Icelandair’s flights are either summer seasonal or year-round. That suggests to me that the flight is more targeted at a European point of sale, which makes sense, since winter is peak season for visitors in Miami.

I imagine Icelandair doesn’t quite have enough aircraft to make this service work in summer for the time being (especially with the aircraft utilization), while in winter it makes a lot more sense, since there are limited places where Icelandair can profitably fly planes.

Bottom line

Icelandair is finally launching its winter seasonal nonstop flight to Miami. The service is operating 3x weekly using an Airbus A321LR. I’m always happy to see Icelandair add more destinations, and am especially excited to see a new international route to my home airport. Here’s to hoping that this route returns for the next season, and also maybe operates in summer at some point.

What do you make of Icelandair adding flights to Miami?