Icelandair has revealed its next US destination: Detroit. It comes after the carrier inaugurated Keflavik-Raleigh Durham in May this year, and it means that, as of November 24th, Iceland's flag carrier expects to serve 15 airports in the US and Canada next summer. Detroit is a good example of another 737 MAX opportunity.

What's happening?

Icelandair will begin Keflavik to Detroit on May 18th. The summer-seasonal route, 2,792 miles (4,494km) apart, will run until October 30th. It'll be served 4 weekly using the 160-seat 737 MAX 8. The airline's smallest jet, it has 16 Saga business class seats and 144 seats in economy.

It is scheduled as follows, with all times local. Note that, when writing, the arrival time in Keflavik isn't yet known, so I've estimated it.

• Keflavik to Detroit: FI873, 17:00-18:25 (6h 25m block time)
• Detroit to Keflavik: FI872, 20:00-06:30+1 (5h 30m)

What about the local market?

Booking data shows that Detroit-Keflavik had about 19,000 roundtrip passengers in 2019, enormously helped by defunct WOW Air's nonstop flights (see below). Pre-WOW Air, the point-to-point market was not even 4,000 in 2017.

Of course, Icelandair hopes to stimulate demand from nonstop service and what will hopefully be strong promotions. But it'll primarily aim at those traveling across wider Europe in the peak travel season, with its schedule fully set up for that.

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The second time for Keflavik-Detroit

WOW Air served the route between April 2018 and March 2019 using A321. It was during the heyday of Keflavik-US flights, with 24 US airports connected nonstop across all airlines in 2018/2019.

According to the US Department of Transportation, WOW Air carried a total of 50,152 passengers to/from Detroit. With 69,520 seats for sale, it achieved an average seat load factor of 72%. Obviously low in itself, despite being new, and probably despite very attractive (lead-in) fares. However, peak summer months all had 76-87% SLFs, and presumably better pricing.

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Detroit's third European airline

Icelandair will be the third airline between Europe and Detroit next summer. It will join Lufthansa, which will run 1 daily from Frankfurt using A340-300s, and Air France's 1 daily from Paris CDG with 787-9s. Icelandair will be the second airline unaffiliated with the SkyTeam alliance, obviously so heavily dominant in Detroit.

Since 2005, Detroit has also had British Airways (until March 2008), KLM (until March 2009), Virgin Atlantic (until March 2017), and, as mentioned earlier, WOW Air (March 2019).

Next summer, Detroit will have nonstop flights to seven European airports:

Where would you like Icelandair to fly in North America?