United Airlines and American Airlines will both begin daily flights to Iceland next summer, RÚV reports. Twenty-nine airlines will fly to Iceland next summer, which is three more than this year. Icelanders are expected to make on average two trips abroad next year, twice the average in neighbouring countries.
“We expect 29 airlines next summer which is the most that have ever come here. They were 26 last summer. There will be four new ones and one which is stopping. Two are from North America, United Airlines and American Airlines. S7 from Moscow and Lux Air from Luxembourg and then Air Berlin which is stopping as many know,” stated Grétar Már Garðarsson, airline business manager at Keflavík International Airport.
Moscow will be a new destination for those travelling from Iceland, as well as five new destinations in the United States.
The airport expects an eighteen percent increase in travellers next year. Seven years ago, half of all tourists who visited Iceland came during the summer months. Next year, only a third of all tourists are expected to visit during the summer, meaning the increasing numbers will be spread more evenly.
It is not only tourists, however, that are travelling more, but Icelanders as well. Grétar says the airport expects Icelanders to make 670,000 trips abroad next year, or on average two per person. “The last time we had numbers there were 0.8 to 0.9 trips abroad per person,” he adds.
