Iceland is well-connected to the U.S. and Europe by a wide variety of airlines, including many U.S. and European airlines, Icelandair and low-cost Play, all with flights connecting at Reykjavik’s big Keflavik airport.
Now an upstart carrier wants to play nice with Iceland’s second-city, Akureyri, sitting just at the Arctic Circle, and several day’s drive away from the capital. Its name is keyed to that ambition; Niceair is meant to suggest N(orth) Ice(land) Air. Up to now, only a seasonal flight from Amsterdam on Transavia has given the north an international connection.
The startup hopes to take advantage of an intriguing statistic: While 80% of visitors to Iceland never leave the southwest corner around the capital, some 70% of second and third time visitors spread out over a wider area, including the north.
Niceair’s founder says that “We look at the Faroes, which is also a relatively remote territory with a population similar to ours, some 50,000 people. If they are able to sustain an operation of that size, I don’t see why we couldn’t do the same here.”
Despite that confidence, he’s not overplaying it; when flights start in June they will use one leased A319 while testing the demand for more. Initial routes will be announced later this month.
