Woot, Icelandair will finally be adding service to my home airport, and I’m kind of excited! While this was first leaked a few weeks back, it’s now official.
In this post:
Icelandair adding Reykjavik to Miami route
As of October 25, 2025, Icelandair will launch 3x weekly flights between Keflavik (KEF) and Miami (MIA). Initially this will be a winter seasonal flight, operating through late March 2026 (though I imagine it has the potential to be extended). It 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 will operate westbound on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, and eastbound on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays.
Icelandair will use 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.
My take on Icelandair adding Miami flights
Miami will be Icelandair’s 19th destination in North America. This will be Icelandair’s first time operating regularly scheduled service to Miami. In Florida, the airline otherwise serves Orlando (MCO) year-round. The airline 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 growing 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 will be 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
As of October 2025, Icelandair will launch winter seasonal nonstop flights to Miami. The service will operate 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.
What do you make of Icelandair adding flights to Miami?
I’m guessing the long turn is also a crew thing.
They flew the B737 Max 8 into Miami 01/27. The delayed FI689 was headed KEF-MCO but confusion about CBP opening hours forced a last minute diversion to MIA once the airline realized CBP would be closed in Orlando by the time the flight arrived. The airline left pax stranded at MIA at midnight and told them to figure out their own hotel & transport to Orlando and then to submit receipts for reimbursement.
It would be cool to see a 5th freedom flight with Icelandair between Miami and Mexico City. Some Icelandic spice to the tiny Mexican market.
Mexico City tiny market?????