With transatlantic flights between Europe and North America generally being on the longer side, most passengers will be grateful if they can find a route that suits them that operates on a non-stop basis, and gets the journey done as quickly and directly as possible. However, depending on the cities in question, this isn’t always possible, leaving one-stop connecting itineraries as their only real option.
This has seen Iceland carve out a useful niche as a transatlantic stopover over the years, serving destinations in both Europe and North America that don’t have direct non-stop connections between each other. As a result, the country’s main airlines have looked to optimize their schedules to allow the greatest possible number of passengers to connect between European and North American flights.
Icelandair’s transatlantic offering
In fact, for flag carrier Icelandair
, connecting transatlantic traffic at its Reykjavík Keflavík International Airport (KEF) hub makes up such a significant proportion of its daily operations that passengers can build longer stopovers into their itineraries. According to the Icelandic national airline’s website, travelers can break their journey in Iceland for up to seven days with no additional airfare to be paid.
Photo: Joe Kunzler | Simple Flying
This is clearly a relatively popular option, as the carrier has even teamed up with Icelandic photographer and content creator Ása Steinars to draw up specific itineraries for those enjoying 24, 48, and 72-hour stopovers in the ‘Land of Ice and Fire.’ Icelandair notes that “the Icelandic stopover makes it easy to stop in Iceland, and the country makes it hard to leave,” underlining the nation’s tourism credentials.
A quick look at the online arrival and departure boards at Reykjavík Keflavík International Airport, Icelandair’s main hub, shows how the national airline’s schedules are optimized to enable transatlantic connections. Indeed, using Thursday, January 16th as an example, there is a wave of 10 Icelandair departures to destinations in the US and Canada in just 30 minutes between 16:45 and 17:15.
Photo: Lukas Souza | Simple Flying
This makes them easy to connect onto for passengers from Europe who arrive into Iceland in the afternoon, with all but three of Icelandair’s European arrivals on January 16th touching down before 16:00. Similarly, the Iceland-bound landings from the US and Canada (nine Icelandair arrivals in a 35-minute spell between 06:05 and 06:40 on January 16th) are well-timed for morning European departures. This strategy optimizes aircraft utilization, reducing time spent on the ground.
Plenty of variety
One of the reasons that Icelandair is so successful with its transatlantic connections is the fact that it flies to several US airports whose European links are otherwise limited. These include the likes of Baltimore Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI) in Maryland and Raleigh Durham International (RDU) in North Carolina, although major US and Canadian hubs are also served.
Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Simple Flying
On a similar note, some of Icelandair’s more obscure European destinations are also ones that may have limited connectivity when it comes to the North American market. If flying from such an airport to the US or Canada requires a stopover anyway, why not break the journey closer to halfway, rather than combining a long transatlantic flight with a short regional sector at either end of the journey?
A closer look at current scheduling data made available by Cirium, an aviation analytics company, underlines the scale of Icelandair’s operations out of its main hub at Reykjavík Keflavík International Airport. Indeed, even in January, which is traditionally a quieter month in aviation, the carrier has scheduled 1,249 flights with 211,430 seats on routes between there and Europe, and 688 flights with 123,029 seats on its North American routes, highlighting the size of both markets.
PLAY has also dabbled with a stopover program
Of course, Icelandair is far from the only airline to capitalize on the country’s favorable location in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean in order to provide a favorable transatlantic offering. Indeed, former carrier Wow Air also experimented with tying together its European and North American routes to capture connecting traffic. However, the airline grew too quickly for its means, and collapsed in 2019.
Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Simple Flying
Still, Wow Air is not the only low-cost operator to dip its feet into the transatlantic market. Indeed, as the commercial aviation industry began to display the first green shoots of recovery following the coronavirus pandemic that brought the airline sector to a near-standstill in 2020, red-liveried Icelandic startup carrier PLAY
commenced operations out of Reykjavík Keflavík International Airport back in 2021.
Having grown more sustainably than Wow Air, which is considered by some to be something of a spiritual predecessor to PLAY, the airline has established itself as a key post-pandemic player in the Icelandic market. This has included the launch of a stopover program to tie together its European and North American routes, which, according to PLAY’s website, allows passengers to stay for up to 10 days.
Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Simple Flying
However, it hasn’t been all plain sailing when it comes to PLAY’s transatlantic operations, with Simple Flying reporting earlier in the month that the carrier would be canceling its seasonal routes to Hamilton International Airport (YHM) in Canada and Washington Dulles (IAD) in the US. More recent reports showed that strategy shifts at the airline have resulted in 40% of PLAY’s North American routes being cut.
Greenland is on the up
This highlights that, while an ideal solution in some instances, Iceland’s status as a transatlantic stopover location isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution. With PLAY’s presence in the transatlantic market looking set to continue to dwindle, leaving Icelandair as the only major operator allowing passengers to break their journeys en route between North America and Europe, another solution may emerge elsewhere.
We are, of course, talking about Greenland, which, like Iceland, is located in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean between Europe and North America. However, the enormous region, which is an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark is situated further to the west, leaving it closer to North America (specifically northeastern Canada), while Iceland, being further east, is closer to Europe.
The commercial aviation sector in Greenland recently received a considerable boost in the form of the reopening of Nuuk Airport (GOH), which is located in the southwest of the territory. This facility serves as the main hub for Air Greenland
, the territory’s flag carrier, and reopened in its new form in November 2024 after a new terminal was built and the runway was extended to handle widebody jets.
Photo: UndyingSkelabra | Shutterstock
This happy end to the last year subsequently begged the question as to whether Nuuk Airport, with its new terminal building and ability to handle widebody aircraft, could yet rival Reykjavík Keflavík as a transatlantic stopover destination. After all, the territory’s air network is set to see steady growth as a result of the airport’s reopening, with North American destinations among those served.
Potential to be a viable alternative
While the path to establishing itself as a transatlantic stopover location for Nuuk Airport will likely be a long one, several key aspects are already in place on an individual level. Indeed, the facility already has aerial links to mainland Europe in place, as, in addition to Air Greenland’s presence on the flagship route to Kastrup Airport (CPH) in Copenhagen, 
SAS
will begin serving this corridor in June.
Similarly, 2025 will also see Nuuk Airport foster direct air links with North America. 
United Airlines
‘ upcoming route to the facility from its East Coast hub at Newark Liberty International (EWR) in the US state of New Jersey is arguably the most significant of these, and it will run, as Adventure Life notes, from June to September. The publication adds that, elsewhere in North America, Iqaluit (YFB) in the Canadian territory of Nunavut will be served on a weekly basis by Air Greenland.
As such, 2025 is set to be a formative year for the newly reopened airport in terms of beginning to grow its links to the European and North American markets. Key stakeholders will be hoping that more destinations can be added in the future, although there is still the complication of tying the two markets together through an integrated ticketing solution in order for Nuuk to be a true transatlantic stopover.
Still, the future looks bright, with Adventure Life noting that “airlines want to develop direct air links that will make travel to Greenland more appealing and convenient for North American tourists,” with “this shift expected to not only increase tourism in the region, but also to strengthen Greenland’s position as an attractive option to other popular Arctic locations.” Nuuk Airport can’t become a transatlantic stopover overnight, but it certainly has the long-term potential.
This year’s North American offerings
Let’s conclude by taking a look at the North American flights on offer to and from Nuuk Airport in 2025. As previously mentioned, United Airlines will fly to and from Newark from June to September, offering 30 flights in each direction during this period using 166-seat 
Boeing
737 MAX 8 twinjets. Meanwhile, Air Greenland’s Iqaluit services will use 37-seat Dash 8-200 turboprops, operating 34 flights in each direction between February and October, with either four or five a month.
Source link : https://simpleflying.com/greenland-match-iceland-aviation-market/
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Publish date : 2025-01-16 22:00:00
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