Connecting Passengers: Where Do Icelandair’s Customers Fly?

Everyone knows that Iceland is well-positioned geographically for travelers heading between North America and wider Europe. It’s something that Icelandair, Iceland Express, and WOW have capitalized on, and new entrant PLAY will soon too. But where do Icelandair’s transit passengers go? We find out.

Germany to the US was almost as big a country market for Icelandair as the UK to the US. Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Simple Flying.

Transit is king for Icelandair

In 2019, the last normal year, about 43% of Icelandair’s 4.4 million passengers transited Keflavik between North America and Europe, according to the carrier’s annual report.

While significant, it reduced from just over half (51%) the year before due to an increasing focus on Iceland as a tourist destination. Multiple other airlines have targeted the fast-growing Iceland tourist market, including Wizz Air, PLAY, and long with various US operators.

In 2019, 43% of Icelandair’s passengers transited Keflavik. The carrier defines “to” as foreign citizens visiting Iceland, “from” as the domestic market, and “via” speaks for itself. Image: Icelandair.

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All about balance

The balance of an airline’s passenger traffic is essential. An overreliance on connecting traffic will mean lower yields and higher costs. For example, in 2019, Icelandair achieved an average one-way fare from Chicago to Keflavik of $269, excluding taxes and any fuel surcharge. From Chicago to Paris, however, it was $315. The distance was 47% longer, but the fare was only 17% higher.

Of course, too great a focus on a relatively small (albeit fast-growing) local market might mean a far smaller network and probably lower performance overall. It’s crucial to achieve a good balance, which will also help to spread risk.

Icelandair has been focusing on rebalancing its passenger traffic by pushing Iceland as a destination. Photo: Konstantin von Wedelstaedt via Wikimedia.

Where do Icelandair’s passengers actually go?

In 2019, booking data shows that more passengers transited between the US and UK than any other country market. No surprise there. Next was Germany-US, Denmark-US, France-US, and Netherlands-US. The first market involving Canada was to/from the UK in 10th.

Icelandair’s largest origin and destination (O&D) was Paris CDG to Washington Dulles, on which it carried over 20,000 round-trip passengers. You’ll see that Copenhagen and Stockholm appear nearly half of the time. Flying via Keflavik is especially good for these cities. For example, Copenhagen-Keflavik-Boston is only 2% father than a non-stop.

1. Paris CDG via Keflavik to Washington Dulles
2. Copenhagen-Seattle
3. Copenhagen-Boston
4. Stockholm-Toronto
5. Paris CDG-Chicago
6. Amsterdam-Boston
7. Paris CDG-Seattle
8. Stockholm-Boston
9. London Heathrow-Washington Dulles
10. Copenhagen-Minneapolis
11. Glasgow-Orlando
12. Amsterdam-Chicago
13. Amsterdam-JFK
14. Stockholm-Washington Dulles
15. Berlin-Boston

Amsterdam features relatively highly in the top-15 list. In 2019, Schiphol was the leading destination for the airline’s 262-seat B767-300ERs. Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Simple Flying.

Notice the lack of London and New York?

As the above list is at airport-pair level, only two in the top-15 involved London and New York. That’s because Icelandair serves both Heathrow and Gatwick and JFK and Newark. (All four airports are still in its network, although Gatwick returns next summer.)

London and New York feature much more prominently on a city-pair basis. The leading five O&Ds were London-Washington, Amsterdam-New York, Copenhagen-New York, London-New York, and Paris-Washington, number-one at airport-level.

Have you transited over Keflavik? Share your experiences in the comments.

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