Icelandair

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Icelandair
IATA
FI		 ICAO
ICE		 Callsign
Iceair
Founded 1937
Hubs Keflavík International Airport
Frequent flyer program SagaBonus
Member lounge Saga Lounge
Fleet size 23
Destinations 23
Parent company Icelandair Group
Headquarters Reykjavík, Iceland
Key people President and CEO: Jón Karl Ólafsson
Website: http://www.icelandair.net


Icelandair is an Icelandic airline of Icelandair Group. It is Iceland's largest airline and has its main offices in Reykjavík. It operates services to 22 cities in 12 countries. Icelandair's hub is located at Keflavík International Airport.

Contents

[edit] History

Icelandair traces its roots to the year 1937 when Flugfélag Akureyrar was founded in Akureyri on the north coast of Iceland. In 1943 the company moved its headquarters to Iceland's capital, Reykjavík, and changed its name to Flugfélag Íslands.

A company called Loftleiðir was formed by three pilots in 1944.

Initially Loftleiðir and Flugfélag Íslands concentrated on Icelandic domestic air services. However, in 1945 Flugfélag Íslands made its first international flights to Scotland and Denmark. Loftleidir began international operations in 1947, and its pioneering low-fare services across the North-Atlantic commenced in 1953. At the time IATA determined the fares for airlines flying between Europe and North-America and all airlines charged the same amount. Loftleidir was not a part of IATA and could therefore determine its own fares. Because of this they were able to undercut all competing airlines. This made them a popular hub for travel between Europe and North-America.

Flugfélag Íslands and Loftleiðir were merged in 1973 and the name Flugleiðir was adopted. It was decided that the company's English name would be Icelandair.

The low-fares airline Iceland Express started competing with Icelandair on two routes in 2003, from Keflavík to Copenhagen, London in addition it now competes on routes to Stockholm, Berlin and Frankfurt.

A large portion of the air traffic between the United States to Europe flies over Iceland. Iceland has become a transfer point for people travelling between the U.S. to Europe and vice versa. This accounts for much of the company's passenger traffic. Icelandair's stopover plan dates back to when Loftleidir started the plan in 1963 on its transatlantic flights at no extra cost. At the time Loftleidir was the only airline that did this and therefore pioneered sixth freedom rights.

[edit] Destinations

Icelandair transported over one and a half million passengers in 2005 (1,526,241). This is the largest number of passengers that the airline has transported in one year. The amount of passengers increased 14.5% from the previous year and since 1993 this amount has tripled. The airlines load factor was close to 78%. On average Icelandair operated 28 flights a day in 2005. (source: Icelandair 2005 Annual Report).

Destinations served from Iceland:

[edit] Europe

Icelandair Boeing 757-200 at London Heathrow airport
Enlarge
Icelandair Boeing 757-200 at London Heathrow airport


[edit] North America

[edit] Fleet

Artist's drawing of a Boeing 787 in Icelandair livery
Enlarge
Artist's drawing of a Boeing 787 in Icelandair livery

The Icelandair fleet includes the following aircraft (at August 2006) [1]:

On 28 February 2005 Icelandair signed a contract for two Boeing 787s for delivery in 2010 and purchase rights for 5 more.

On 5 April 2006 Icelandair signed a contract to exercise two of their five Boeing 787 purchase rights for delivery in 2010.

Icelandair shares many of these aircraft with its sister company Loftleiðir Icelandic. Loftleiðir Icelandic is now operating 6 Boeing 757-200s and 3 Boeing 767-300s. Icelease, another sister company of Icelandair, owns 15 Boeing 737-800. These aircraft are leased to other companies including Air China.

[edit] Fleet History

  • Initially Icelandair used Douglas DC-8 aircraft for their international routes. During the 1990s they acquired new Boeing 757s. In 1997 the airline established a subsidiary, Air Iceland, to operate domestic and some short-haul routes.

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ Flight International, 3-9 October 2006


Members of the Association of European Airlines
Adria Airways | Aer Lingus | Air France | Air Malta | Austrian Airlines | bmi | British Airways | Cargolux | Croatia Airlines | Czech Airlines | Cyprus Airways | Finnair | Iberia Airlines | Icelandair | Jat Airways | KLM | LOT Polish Airlines | Malév Hungarian Airlines | Olympic Airlines | Scandinavian Airlines | SN Brussels Airlines | Spanair | SWISS | TAP Portugal | TAROM | Turkish Airlines | Virgin Atlantic Airways
Airlines of Iceland
Air Atlanta Icelandic | Air Iceland | Bluebird Cargo | Eagle Air | Iceland Express | Icelandair | Islandsflug | JetX Airlines


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