Icelandair Announces Largest Flight Schedule Ever: Additional U.S. Flights, A New Canadian Gateway, and Two New Scandinavian Destinations for the Summer Season 2007

    COLUMBIA, Md., Oct. 16 /PRNewswire/ -- Icelandair will increase its
 number of flights by 17% in 2007, providing the largest schedule in the
 history of the airline. The company celebrates its 70th anniversary next
 year with additional flights and capacities from three of its current North
 American gateway cities, a new Canadian gateway, and two new Scandinavian
 destinations.
     New U.S. Flights
     Icelandair will bolster its summer 2007 schedules by adding early-
 afternoon departures from Boston and New York-JFK, four and three times
 weekly, respectively. "These flights are designed to give our passengers an
 option of daytime or overnight (current) flights to Iceland, and are
 designed to be the first step towards further network growth in the years
 to come," said Gunnar Eklund, General Manager - The Americas. "Our summer
 flights out of Boston and New York have had very high load factors in the
 past years, and the demand continues to grow," he continued. "Summer travel
 demand out of Baltimore/Washington International Airport is also very
 encouraging, and we are therefore replacing our present Boeing 757-200
 services with the larger Boeing 767 aircraft. Following our new route
 network setup and the future ambitions attached to it, the San Francisco -
 Iceland route will be discontinued."
     New Canadian Gateway
     Icelandair will again take off from Halifax, Canada beginning with its
 summer schedule next year. There will be three flights per week to Iceland
 that connect onwards to Icelandair's many other destinations in
 Scandinavia, Continental Europe and the United Kingdom. "We are pleased to
 be flying from Halifax again," stated Eklund, referring to Icelandair's
 renewal of its service after a several-year hiatus. "The Halifax operations
 will provide an excellent opportunity to service the growing number of
 Icelandic companies in Canada, and for Atlantic Canada residents to visit
 Iceland, our unique and spectacular home country, on the way to some of our
 many destinations in Europe," he added.
     New Destinations
     The airline will continue to grow its service to Scandinavia with two
 new destinations in spring 2007. The added frequencies will result in
 Icelandair operating up to 10 times per day from Iceland to the Nordic
 countries by next summer. The new destinations are Bergen, Norway and
 Gothenburg, Sweden, which join Icelandair's other Scandinavian
 destinations: Copenhagen, Helsinki, Oslo, and Stockholm. "We are proud to
 offer the fastest and most convenient way to Scandinavia from many of our
 North American gateway cities," said Eklund. "The addition of Bergen
 (arrivals on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays) will be a huge draw for
 Western Norway-bound fjord cruise passengers and will service the sizable
 North American - Norwegian ethnic population on both sides of the Atlantic.
 Adding the dynamic city of Gothenburg to our network twice a week will
 provide easy access to the second biggest city of Sweden, as well as
 western and southern Sweden," Eklund concluded.
     Icelandair currently offers evening departing flights from its US
 gateways in Baltimore/Washington, Boston, Minneapolis/St. Paul, New
 York-JFK and Orlando Sanford. Reykjavik, Iceland serves as the airline's
 hub, with connecting flights to Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Frankfurt, Glasgow,
 London, Manchester, Oslo, Paris and Stockholm, and seasonal flights to
 Barcelona, Berlin, Helsinki, Madrid, Milan, Munich and Zurich.
     Icelandair reservations and information are available at (800) 223-5500
 and online at http://www.icelandair.com.
 
 

SOURCE Icelandair