Airline Profile: Icelandair

The Facts:

Founded	1937
Alliance	N/A
Hubs	Keflavik International Airport (Reykjavik)
Headquarters	Reykjavik, Iceland
Fleet Count	Around 36
Skytrax Rating	3 (out of 5)
Parent Company	Icelandair Group
Travel Classes	Economy Saga Premium (Business Class)
Frequent Flyer Program	Saga Club
Website	icelandair.com
Type of Airline	Low Cost/Full Service
Subsidiaries	Air Iceland Connect (Regional)
Competitors	Wow Air
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Analysis:

Travel Classes:

Economy:

On all aircraft on Icelandair, economy class passengers get free personal on demand entertainment at every seat. Also, inflight wifi is available on all aircraft and is free for economy class passengers who book an Economy Flex fare ticket. On all flights, warm meals are available for purchase and non alcoholic beverages are included free of charge. Blankets and pillows are available to economy class passengers (for free) and headphones are available for a surcharge. As long as you don’t buy an Economy Light fare ticket, one 23 kg (around 50 lb) checked bag is included with your ticket. On all aircraft, passengers get around 32 inches of legroom. Seats are in a 3-3 configuration on the 757 and 737 and are in a 2-3-2 configuration on the 767. While power outlets are not available, USB ports are available on select aircraft. Please note that Icelandair has completely gotten rid of its Premium Economy section called Economy Comfort, so the only two travel classes now are Economy and Saga Premium.

In 2016, I flew Icelandair economy back and forth from Washington Dulles to Reykjavik. The experience was….okay. I was traveling on a Boeing 757-200, and the seats were really uncomfortably hard. While it was only a 5 hour flight and it was fine for me, I wouldn’t want to have to sit in those seats for much longer than that. The food, blankets, pillows, and inflight entertainment were also fine, although they were nothing to write home about. The thing that was really awful about my experience with Icelandair was that on the way back, Keflavik Airport had an airport evacuation – I probably will write about that sometime in the future.

Saga Premium:

Saga Premium is Icelandair’s business class/premium product. On all aircraft, Saga Premium features recliner seats without leg rests in either a 2-2 configuration (757/737) or in a 2-1-1 configuration (767). The seats are identical to what you would find on domestic first class on United or Delta. For Icelandair’s longest flights (such as to San Francisco), having recliner seats in business class is really unacceptable – on 7+ hour flights, in business class, flat bed seats are the least that airlines can provide for business class passengers. However, most of Icelandair’s flights are less than 5 hours, where I would consider recliner seats completely acceptable. Just going into Icelandair’s long haul flights, know that you won’t be getting a good seat.

Passengers traveling in Saga Premium also get priority check in, lounge access, priority boarding, free wifi, and up to 70 pound bags. Passenger also get free premium meals, more mileage earnings, and access to inflight entertainment. Would I say that it is worth it to upgrade to Saga Premium? On a random date in February, economy costs around $215 while Saga Premium costs around $1,900 from New York to Reykjavik. For a seat that doesn’t even have a leg rest and a free meal, I find paying a bit less than 9 times the amount of money outrageous! Unless the Saga prices drastically go down, I recommend to stick to economy as in Saga class, you really won’t get much of a premium seat that you would expect on a transatlantic flight.

Other Notes:

Icelandair operates on two business models which both involve people flying to Iceland:

• Icelandic Tourism: This might be the more obvious reason why Icelandair exists. Iceland is a huge tourism market due to the iconic and spectacular geothermal and volcanic activity in Iceland. Since it is not that far away from both Europe and North America, Icelandair gets a ton of tourists who want to visit Iceland to fly with them in the summer. I personally have visited the country, and it really does have amazing landscapes and geysers that can be found in very few other places in the world. Since getting there (on Icelandair or Wow Air) is extremely cheap, I highly recommend visiting.
• Transatlantic Stopover: This is probably the bigger way that Icelandair makes money. Iceland is right in the middle of many transatlantic crossings from many places in North America to many places in Europe. Their business model is to fly people from the US/Europe to Iceland, and then for them to continue on to their final destination in the US/Europe. Since they operate to many destinations in both North America and Europe, you can fly from smaller (and large) cities such as Cleveland to cities in Europe where you can’t fly to nonstop in the US that much, such as Berlin. This way, with cheap prices, instead of having to connect in Heathrow or Frankfurt, you can connect at a much smaller airport in Iceland to many more cities one stop from North America to Europe. With so many convenient one stop city pairs and cheap tickets, they have turned Keflavik from a tiny airport into a large hub airport. Icelandair also offers a whole Icelandic Stopover program, where you can stay for a few nights in Iceland while flying from North America to Europe. 

Future/Recently Commenced Flights:

Reykjavik-Keflavik to Dusseldorf – October 25, 2018

Have you ever flown on Icelandair? Share about your experience below!