Icelandair Launching New Nashville Flights
Intro
Icelandair, the primary operator out of Iceland, has just announced its latest route out of Reykjavik. While this certainly comes as no surprise after the partnership recently announced with Southwest, I am excited about this new route as it provides more competition to Iceland.
Let's get into it!
The Details
Starting May 16th, 2025, Icelandair will be launching a 4x weekly service from Rekjavik to Nashville using a 737 max 8. The 737 Max 8 features 16 reclining business class seats, as well as 144 economy class seats.
The flight plan is blocked at just over 3200 miles, while the eastbound flight is blocked at 6 hours and 45 minutes. Westbound is obviously slightly longer, with a block time of 7 hours and 20 minutes.
The schedule is as follows:
FI825: Keflavik-Nashville departing 5:10 PM arriving 7:30 PM
FI824: Nashville-Keflavik departing 8:55 PM arriving 8:40 AM (+1 day)
My Thoughts
A couple of days ago, I wrote about how much Salt Lake City is growing in the aviation market. Another city that seems to have seen some growth over the past few years is Nashville. With this new flight, Nashville will now be served by British Airways and Icelandair. I wonder if we might see one of the Skyteam partners add service next.
This will be Icelandair's 18th destination in America, as they seem to have quite the strategic advantage due to their location. Due to their hub being located quite a bit closer to the US than France, England, and Germany, they are able to utilize planes like the 737 Max 8, with low operating costs, to their advantage. The 737 max 8 range sits around 4000 nm, so this route is well within the range.
Look, Icelandair doesn't have the nicest product in the sky, and it certainly isn't the best to be stuck in a single aisle jet for 7+ hours. However, Icelandair is also known to offer significantly cheaper fares than other mainline carriers.
Final Thoughts
Icelandair will be launching a new route to their 18th US destination, Nashville. Considering Southwest and Icelandair just announced a new partnership, it makes a lot of sense to connect traffic both ways. Icelandair doesn't offer the best hard product in the world, but fares seem to be attractive across the board.
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