Icelandair has announced a brand-new route to the US, with Keflavik to Raleigh Durham beginning next summer. It'll be operated by the B737 MAX and is one of 10 destinations across the US down to see the type. Its North America MAX network rises to 11 if Canada is included.
What's happening?
Raleigh Durham to Keflavik will be good for growing point-to-point (P2P) demand to Iceland, an increasingly popular destination, while adding another way of getting to/from wider Europe. The focus on P2P demand will be important to drive higher yields and more robust performance.
Icelandair's new route will join Raleigh's other long-haul services to London Heathrow with American Airlines (resuming once-daily from March 26th) and Paris CDG with Delta (returning three-weekly from August 3rd). The announcement came on the same day as fellow Iceland carrier PLAY revealed Baltimore and Boston as its initial US routes.
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The schedule
The 3,016-mile (4,854km) route to Raleigh Durham will begin on May 12th, utilizing Icelandair's 160-seat B737 MAX 8s. These have 16 in business class (Saga Class) and 144 in economy. With a block time of six hours and 45 minutes out and six hours back, it'll operate to the US on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays, and Sundays. The schedule is below (all times are local).
- FI821, Keflavik to Raleigh Durham: 16:45-19:30
- FI820, Raleigh Durham to Keflavik: 20:30-06:30+1 the following day
Why Raleigh Durham?
Over 400,000 round-trip passengers flew from the North Carolina airport to Europe in 2019, booking data shows. It's a large market, obviously in part driven by the non-stops to Heathrow and CDG.
Some 18 European cities will have two-way Icelandair connectivity over Keflavik. Excluding non-stop passengers, there's a market of around 165,000. Of course, this traffic volume is across multiple airlines. Some of the most obvious markets see existing airlines offering multi-daily times versus a four-weekly offering.
Icelandair will mainly compete on price to wider Europe. Supporting this will be Iceland's P2P demand. While Raleigh-Keflavik traffic was low in 2019, it'll obviously increase meaningfully, driven by non-stops, no doubt strong promotions, and lower fares.
Icelandair's MAX network to the US/Canada
Next summer, Icelandair's B737 MAXs, both the smaller -8 variant and larger -9, will be used to 11 US and Canada airports, as shown below. Seattle, some 3,622 miles (5,830km) away, currently has more flights scheduled than any other. It'll mainly be by the MAX 9, with the B757-200ER operating too.
- Baltimore
- Boston
- Chicago
- JFK
- Minneapolis
- Newark
- Orlando
- Raleigh Durham
- Seattle
- Toronto
- Washington Dulles
Where next?
It'll be interesting to see if Icelandair launches other, thinner US/Canada routes using its MAXs. Previously it served the likes of Cleveland, Halifax, Kansas City, and Montreal, and it seems to have expected Pittsburgh, a destination that British Airways will again serve from Heathrow. Lufthansa has also added St Louis from Frankfurt.
Some of Icelandair's former destinations (like Cleveland and Montreal) were driven by the entrance of WOW. Reasons for cuts include delays of MAX deliveries, insufficient P2P demand, Icelandair scaling back, and/or little need to operate given WOW's cessation.
Which, if any, do you think will return? Or where else would you like to see? Let us know in the comments.