Icelandair has revealed plans to add service to another city in the United States, and I imagine the timing of this announcement is no coincidence.
In this post:
Icelandair adding seasonal Reykjavik to Nashville route
As of May 16, 2025, Icelandair will launch 4x weekly flights between Keflavik (KEF) and Nashville (BNA). This will be a summer seasonal route that operates through the end of October. The route will operate on Sundays, Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, with the following schedule:
FI825 Keflavik to Nashville departing 5:10PM arriving 7:30PM
FI824 Nashville to Keflavik departing 8:55PM arriving 8:40AM (+1 day)
The 3,239-mile flight is blocked at 7hr20min westbound and 6hr45min eastbound. Icelandair will use a Boeing 737 MAX 8 for the flight, featuring 160 seats, including 16 business class seats and 144 economy class seats.
With this new route, Icelandair will serve 18 destinations in North America, in addition to 34 destinations in Europe. Icelandair will be the second airline offering (sort of) transatlantic flights out of Nashville, with the other service being on British Airways to London (LHR).
Here’s how Icelandair CEO Bogi Nils Bogason describes this route addition:
“We are very pleased to add Nashville to our extensive network in North America, linking Music City to our 34 destinations in Europe. We know travelers from the Southeast will greatly benefit from this new service and offer Tennesseans the best options to Iceland and beyond. Our new service will also provide travelers from Iceland and Europe, connecting through Nashville, more choices throughout the US. In addition, we encourage passengers traveling to Europe, to take an Icelandair Stopover, and explore our home. We look forward to welcoming Nashville aboard.”
This seems like a logical route add for Icelandair
Nashville seems like a safe destination for Icelandair to expand to. For one, it’s a market that has a decent amount of transatlantic demand in both directions, but not enough to sustain much traffic from the “big three” major European airline groups, which fly larger planes, and are more dependent on premium demand.
There’s another factor at play, though. Keep in mind that Icelandair and Southwest have just announced a partnership, with Icelandair being Southwest’s first global airline partner. This agreement will go live as of 2025. While Baltimore (BWI) will be the first airport where the two airlines partner on connections, I have to imagine that Nashville will be among the best.
Nashville is a big market for Southwest, and it’s also a city where the airline is growing. So I imagine connecting traffic is also a (small) factor here.
Bottom line
As of May 2025, Icelandair will launch nonstop flights to Nashville. The service will operate 4x weekly for the summer season using a Boeing 737 MAX 8. This brings Icelandair’s destinations in North America to 18, and it also makes sense that this is being added at a time when Icelandair is starting to partner with Southwest.
What do you make of Icelandair adding Nashville flights?
The idea of a long haul on a 737 Max is not appealing! The 757 is the only narrow body plane I can handle to Europe!
This idea of connectivity on Souithwest sounds good in theory, as Southwest offers a large network in the US and Icelandair claims that any Nordic-Baltic airline is a partner for connectivity there. I just hope that people are aware that they'll be flying an extra leg across the Atlantic (stopover in KEF, breaking the possibility to get some sleep on board) and that all is flown on narrow bodies. I would prefer different routing, but...
This idea of connectivity on Souithwest sounds good in theory, as Southwest offers a large network in the US and Icelandair claims that any Nordic-Baltic airline is a partner for connectivity there. I just hope that people are aware that they'll be flying an extra leg across the Atlantic (stopover in KEF, breaking the possibility to get some sleep on board) and that all is flown on narrow bodies. I would prefer different routing, but if the price is right and if a stopover in Iceland can be on the menu, then why not make it an adventure, instead of just getting from A to B?
Yeah, 3 legs on narrowbodies is pretty brutal of a way to cross the Atlantic. Not impossible, but not my first option, unless I really wanted to be in Iceland
I heard Aer Lingus was considering BNA some time back as well.
Interesting to see.
Lufthansa's Discover though, was going to launch BNA, and has now cancelled those plans. Bittersweet outcome for Nashville.
i hope they would come back to tpa!!
Great, have been waiting for this connection for a long time
The tail logo looks like the F in Frontier Airlines.