Icelandair was founded in 1937 under the name Flugfelag Akureyrar. The new airline was based in Akureyri, a town in northern Iceland. In 1943 the airline moved to the capital Reykjavik and renamed Flugfelag Íslands.
Icelandair Boeing 757-200 in 1944, the competition from a new airline, Loftleidir, also known as Icelandic Airlines. In 1945 Flugfelag Íslands flights to Largs in Scotland, the first international destination for an Icelandic airline. They used a seaplane, the Consolidated Catalina, for these flights. In 1947 began Loftleidir with international flights. Loftleidir began in 1953 with flights to North America.
In 1973, merged the two companies. Initially the name Flugleiðir using a combination of the names of the original holdings. In 1979 the name of the current verandered Icelandair, but domestically, the name was retained Flugleiðir.
Initially used Icelandair DC-8s for their international routes. In the nineties were replaced by Boeing 757s. Today, Icelandair is the largest airline of Iceland, although it faces competition on a small number of routes to the low fare airline Iceland Express, which began in 2003, flights to Copenhagen and London.
Comparatively Icelandair is a major airline for a small country with only 300,000 inhabitants. This is explained by the large number of passengers traveling from North America and Europe and vice versa, switching in Iceland. Icelandair maintains regular flight connections from Keflavik airport with seven cities in the United States and 12 cities in Europe, including Amsterdam.
Early every morning, at about the same time, countries all aircraft from the United States, after which a few hours a massive crowds of passengers transferring to aircraft ready to depart to European destinations.
In the afternoon, these aircraft returned back with all new passenger, who for the most part over to airplanes that are ready to go to U.S. destinations. The rest of the day it is very quiet at the airport. The next day the same process repeats itself. This efficient system Icelandair planes are almost constantly in the air and maintain a high occupancy. This may offer promotional fares to travelers between the U.S. and Europe and vice versa.
Icelandair is one of the thirteen companies of FL Group (formerly called Flugleidir Icelandair Group). The group is the center of the rapidly growing tourist industry in Iceland, and includes Icelandair, Icelandair Cargo, Icelandair Hotels, Air Iceland, Iceland Travel, Reykjavik Excursions, Icelandair / Hertz, Icelandair Ground Services, Icelandair Technical Services, Loftleidir-Icelandic and Icelandair Shared Services .
On October 23, 2005 FL Group announced the acquisition of the Danish airline Sterling Airways low fares. Icelandair also owns 16.18% of the British “no-frills” carrier easyJet.
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