The world's most colorful airline has just added a new route to Scandinavia, as Condor is bringing its passengers to the land of fire and ice for the first time. Flights will begin next year as Condor anticipates its touchdown in the Northern and Eastern parts of Iceland.
Condor's route expansion
Beginning from May 2023, Condor will be flying once overnight from Frankfurt to Akureyri in the North and Egilsstaðir in the east of Iceland. This will be the first time Iceland is on Condor's flight map, and with that, the German leisure airline will be adding two desirable destinations in the North to its portfolio.
Ralf Teckentrup, Chief Executive of Condor, said:
“Iceland is one of the most popular travel destinations in the North. We look forward to offering our guests the opportunity to discover this varied and natural travel destination for themselves. With the connections to Akureyri and Egilsstaðir, we are also responding to the great demand from numerous tour operators who offer round trips in the North and East of Iceland.”
Currently, Akureyri and Egilsstaðir are accessible via domestic flights, car, and bus. The two towns are on the ring road that runs around the island, making them popular starting points for round trips. As the fourth-largest city in Iceland, Akureyri is well-known for its waterfalls and lakes as well as its humble villages. Egilsstaðir, the largest town in the area, opens up to spectacular canyons, more scenic waterfalls, and peaceful villages for passengers to take a cultural deep dive.
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From Germany to Iceland
But why did Germany's favorite leisure airline suddenly think about expanding its route network to include Iceland? The thought comes as part of the Nordic country's efforts to return its tourist numbers to pre-pandemic levels. As with every global industry, Iceland's tourism sector was harshly hit during the pandemic and had since been gradually recovering.
Since January 1st, an estimated 636,000 tourists have traveled to Iceland, which was significantly more than the year before when the first half only saw 75,000 visiting tourists. However, despite the considerable jump in numbers, Iceland is unsatisfied with not being even near to pre-pandemic footfall, when over one million tourists visited in the first half of 2019.
And of the 636,000 tourists accounted for thus far this year, approximately 21,000 were German tourists, emphasizing the need for Condor to consider Iceland. The other vital factor is that Condor would have little competition on these new routes, as German national carrier Lufthansa only flies to Reykjavik. As for Iceland's popular low-cost carrier PLAY, it only flies from Reykjavik to Berlin. However, Icelandair will offer direct competition, but with one-stop flights as opposed to the nonstop flights offered by the German carrier.
Sigríður Dögg Guðmundsdóttir, Head of Visit Iceland, said:
"Akureyri and Egilsstaðir have excellent airports ready to receive Condor flights next year. These new flights give our visitors the possibility to explore Iceland further by landing directly in the north or the east of Iceland. Both regions offer breathtaking landscapes and have a great tourism infrastructure in place, with a wide choice of hotels and outdoor activities and facilities.“
Bottom line
Ever since its striking rebranding, Condor has been on a route expansion run. The latest before Iceland has been the addition of Boston, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. With yet another new route added, albeit it starts next year and the aircraft type is yet to be announced, and when paired with the lack of competition for absolute monopoly, Condor is undoubtedly proving why it will remain a popular leisure carrier for Germany. It would also be interesting to see if Condor has plans to expand routes from Cologne, probably to Orlando, to take over from Air Berlin.