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Icelandair to fly to Stavanger and Dusseldorf

8th December 2008 Print
Icelandair is in the process of introducing the Company’s new schedule for next summer. Icelandair will fly to 23 destinations with a schedule featuring up to 136 flights per week. New features include regular flights to Stavanger in Norway and Dusseldorf in Germany, while flights to Orlando in Florida will be suspended next summer. The frequency of flights to Toronto in Canada will be increased, but on the whole the flight schedule will be reduced from last summer.

“We are adapting our summer schedule to the current economic climate in Iceland and in our principal markets. We intend to achieve results in bringing tourists to Iceland, and the changes in our schedule are designed for that purpose. We are adding these new destinations in Norway and Germany and discontinuing Orlando from 8 May to 29 September, which has not featured heavily in our summer schedule in recent years. In addition, we are making changes in flight frequency to certain destinations in order to improve efficiency,” says Icelandair CEO Birkir Hólm Gudnason.

Icelandair bases its route network on the central location of Iceland between northern Europe and North America. Every day, the Company’s 757 jets fly one trip to Europe and another to North America. The route network enables Icelandair to serve three markets: the domestic market in Iceland, the tourist market with Iceland as a destination, and the international market between Europe and North America.

“The route network and the airline’s location in Iceland give Icelandair its special position in the world of air travel; this is a source of significant strength in times of uncertainty, like the present. It enables us to change focus and advance in one market while taking a defensive stance in others. The Icelandic market is sluggish at the moment, so we are using the opportunity to advance in other markets, in particular the tourist market to Iceland, where there are now new opportunities as a result of the currency situation. Iceland is now a cheaper destination than it used to be. One of our strengths is our flexibility, and we intend to use it to our advantage,” says Gudnason.

Next summer, Icelandair will fly to five destinations in North America, i.e. Boston, New York, Minneapolis, Toronto and Halifax, and 18 destinations in Europe, Oslo, Bergen, Stavanger, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Helsinki, Glasgow, Manchester, London, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Dusseldorf, Berlin, Munchen, Paris, Madrid, Barcelona and Milan,

“The flight frequency ensured by Icelandair – over 130 flights per week to and from all the principal cities east and west of the Atlantic – is the foundation of the tourist industry in Iceland. The airline and tourist industries represent an export sector which will create job opportunities around the country, and the importance of maintaining good communications between Iceland and other countries can hardly be overestimated. Icelandair has played a key role in this regard, and we intend to continue to do so,” says Gudnason.