Icelandair announced yesterday that it will begin direct flights, twice a week, between Iceland and Manchester, England next April.
In a statement, Jón Karl Ólafsson, president and CEO Icelandair, said,
“We have realised the need for an additional gateway from the UK to compliment the existing service from London Heathrow and Glasgow with Manchester Airport the perfect choice. With this addition to the route network, Icelandair strives to service the tourism market in England better and opens up a new channel for Icelandair to travel to exciting places in England”.
Jón Karl added, “The powerful marketing efforts of Icelandair in Britain in the last years and decades have resulted in three time increase of tourist volume to Iceland from 1995.”
A few years ago, Icelandair attracted considerable publicity when it ran a controversial marketing campaign using slogans such as “Fancy a dirty weekend” and “”Reykjavík – A one night stand”. The campaign was heavily criticized by Icelandic women, but Icelandair justified the campaign by saying it was meant to appeal to the British sense of humor.
Jón Karl also said that Manchester was the central point of a densely populated area with the number of residents similar to the total number of residents in Denmark, Sweden and Norway combined, and that the flying time to Iceland was only two and a half hours.
