newstodate.aero

Feb 22, 2022 (newstodate): Is there room for a new airline service at Akureyri, in the remote north of Iceland? Yes, says a group of financially strong investors, industrial companies and travel and leisure parties in the region.
   Plans are to set up a virtual airline, Niceair, aiming to start services already this summer operated in partnership with a yet-unnamed airline providing an Airbus A319 aircraft on four/five scheduled flights per week to two main destinations, plus additional flights and charters from the area to mainland Europe and the UK.
   -Most visitors to Iceland tend to enter the country via Keflavik Airport in the SW of the country and remain within 200 km from KEF, Niceair says in a presentation paper.  
   -However, the case for international direct air travel towards North Iceland is strong. Only half of incoming tourists to Iceland travel towards the north and east of the country. The potential to grow is therefore substantial.  
   -A recent survey by the Icelandic Tourist Board among tourists visiting Iceland revealed that 70 percent of people coming back for the second or third time were headed directly to north Iceland, lamenting the fact that the option to fly directly was not available.
   -The establishment of scheduled air-links between another part of Iceland and Europe is likely to rekindle the image and experience of the sparsely populated island rock in the middle of the Atlantic, since tourist opportunities in the areas outside the capital region are largely underutilized.
   Behind the project is Thorvaldur Sigurjonsson, CEO of Circle Air, an Icelandic air tours and charter company operating from Reykjavik and Akureyri, offering sightseeing tours with smaller aircraft.