Despite many challenges this year, Icelandair is launching traffic on a wide range of routes in 2019.
“More connections to both Europe and North America “ is the vision from the airline.
2018 has been a challenging year for Icelandair, which is pushed by increased competition on airline connections between Europe and North America.
This occurred no later than the end of August, when expectations for EBITDA – before interest and depreciation – were lowered to $ 80-100 million. This was about half of the expected EBITDA compared to what was announced after the first quarter.
However, the many problems do not cause Icelandair to reverse the ambition of being one of the leading companies on air traffic across the North Atlantic.
”In the traffic program next summer, however, Icelandair will increase the number of weekly connections on a number of routes, including routes to Europe, the United States and Canada.”
On the European routes, Icelandair increases, for example, from seven to 10 weekly departures on the route from Keflavik to Berlin.
On the route to Hamburg, Icelandair also runs in June from seven to 10 weekly departures, while both Frankfurt and Munich increase from one to two daily connections from 15 May. At the same time, the number of departures from Keflavik to Brussels doubles from five to ten per week.
On the routes to North America, Icelandair will travel from one to two daily connections to Chicago O’Hare from May 15th.
For Canada, Icelandair is on the route to Toronto from seven to 11 weekly connections and to Vancouver from four to six departures a week.
On the seasonal route to Kansas City increases from three to four weekly departures, and this route is served next summer.
New schedule
Icelandair launches a number of new flights, expanding its network and giving passengers traveling to and from North America and Europe more options.
The new flights to Icelandair will be in addition to today’s departures, starting in May 2019. Although the second departure batch will be smaller, more flights will operate to major cities in Europe: Amsterdam, Berlin, Brussels, Copenhagen, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Munich, Oslo, Paris, Stockholm and Zurich. In North America, the new service will be in Boston, Chicago, Minneapolis, New York, Toronto and Washington, DC.
The new departures also provide opportunities to enter new markets improve service and increase the flexibility of the network. Since Keflavik already has limited capacity in the morning and afternoon, the new departures will ease when there is free space. Combining these flights into the journey gives passengers more options to and from their final destination.
The new departures from North America arrive at Iceland at. 9:30 with connections to Europe that runs around kl. 10.30. Flights from Europe land at Keflavik around 18:30 with departures to North America approximately 20:00.
“We are improving our current grid while introducing a new product. Passengers get more choices when they want to travel. They have the opportunity to have some extra time in the morning on flights from Iceland to Europe, as well as a whole day in Iceland before moving on to North America. We are also aiming to correct the imbalance that the routes had in 2018. “
