75 Years of flying and counting, how many airlines can say that?? not too many.

Icelandair traces its roots back to 1937, when Flugfélag Akureyrar was founded in Akureyri on the north coast of Iceland. Flight operations started in 1938 with a single floatplane of the type Waco YKS-7. In 1939 the airline had to be grounded when the aircraft was destroyed in a capsizing accident. The company moved to Reykjavík, were it acquired another Waco aircraft and was re-launched in 1940 as Flugfélag Íslands, which translates as Flight Company of Iceland. Previously, two unrelated airlines of the same name had existed in the country (from 1919 to 1920, and between 1928 and 1931). For international purposes, the name Iceland Airways was adopted.
The fleet was expanded with a Beechcraft Model 18 in 1942, and with two de Havilland Dragon Rapide as well as one U.S.-made Consolidated PBY Catalina in 1944, the latter being the first ever aircraft registered in Iceland to be flown to Iceland by an Icelandic crew from North America. On 11 July 1945, this aircraft operated the first commercial flight over the Atlantic Ocean for the airline, which led from Reykjavík to Largs in Scotland, with four passengers and four crew members on board. Regular flights to Prestwick Airport, Scotland and Copenhagen in Denmark, using B-24 Liberator aircraft leased from Scottish Airlines were launched in 1946.
In the same year, comfort and performance of domestic flights in Iceland could be improved with the introduction of the Douglas DC-3 Dakota. A total of six airliners of that type had been purchased, which remained in service with the airline until 1972, the oldest one being still flightworthy as of 2011. Until the late 1960s, Flugfélag concentrated mostly on domestic flights, where it initially faced fierce competition from Loftleiðir, another airline which had been founded in 1944. When a merger proposal of the Icelandic government was rejected by the two airlines, the domestic routes were split among them as a measure to ease competition. When Loftleiðir pulled out of the domestic market in 1952 to fully concentrate on international flights, Flugfélag became the main domestic carrier of the country.
International services stayed part of the business model of Flugfélag, though to a far lesser extent compared to Loftleiðir. In 1948, the Douglas C-54 Skymaster was introduced on those routes, and in 1957 two new Vickers 759 Viscounts were acquired, the first turboprop airliners to be operated by an Icelandic airline. In the 1950s, Flugfélag began to use the Icelandair branding for its international flights.
In 1967, Flugfélag was the first Icelandic airline to join the jet age, when a Boeing 727 dubbed Gullfaxi was put into service. Another 727 was acquired in 1971, and the aircraft type was operated until 1990.

  Another company called Loftleiðir had been formed in 1944 by three young pilots returning from their flight training in Canada. Their company, whose name roughly means "Skyways", concentrated on Icelandic domestic air services for the first few years. The first planes used were two Stinson Reliants, and then a Grumman Goose amphibious aircraft.
At first, Loftleiðir, like Flugfélag Íslands, concentrated on domestic air services. Loftleiðir began scheduled international operations in 1947.
By 1952, the Icelandic authorities were very worried that fierce competition between both Icelandic airlines would ruin both companies, and attempted to force a merger between them. This did not happen at the time, but instead the authorities split up the domestic routes between the two airlines. As a result, Loftleiðir ceased domestic flights in Iceland entirely, concentrating instead on international flights. Loftleiðir's pioneering low-fare services across the North-Atlantic then commenced in 1953. In a way, Loftleiðir can even be considered a sort of precursor of the low-cost carriers that started operating in the 1970s. This made them a popular airline for travel between Europe and North America.
The late 1960s were an exciting time for Loftleiðir.^[24] In 1969 the company acquired Air Bahama, a small airline operating out of the Bahamas, and a year later Loftleiðir became one of the founders of Cargolux, a cargo airline. Also in 1970, Loftleiðir entered the jet age with its first two Douglas DC-8 aircraft.
During those years, Loftleiðir were often referred to, even by the company's own staff, as "the Hippie Airline" or even "the Hippie Express". Loftleiðir were not famous for speed or punctuality, but flying with the company became a sort of rite of passage for those young "hippies", one of whom was Bill Clinton, later US President.
   The aircraft fleet of Icelandair remained mainly unchanged until the Boeing 757-200 became the new backbone for transatlantic flights during the 1990s. The domestic Fokker F-27s were replaced by F-50s and Boeing 737s deployed on European routes. The European hub at Luxemburg-Findel Airport had been taken over from Loftleiðir. Passenger count topped one million in 1995 as the company's business grew on a reputation as a "backpacker airline", similar to Loftleiðir, which had been referred to as "Hippie Airline" since the late 1960s. In the same year, it was begun to dismantle the Luxemburg hub in favor of today's decentralized European network, linking the largest cities non-stop to Reykjavík.
In 1997 the domestic operations of Icelandair, part of which had previously been operated under the Flugfélag Nordurlands branding, were combined with small airline Nordurflug to form the Air Iceland subsidiary^. allowing mainline Icelandair to fully concentrate on international flights since then. In 1999, a new aircraft livery was introduced, as part of an image campaign designed to retire Icelandair's "backpacker" label in favor of an emphasis on business travel. From 2001, the Icelandair hub was moved to Keflavík International Airport. As Icelandair particularly focuses on flights to North America, the company was significantly affected by the airspace closure following the September 11 attacks in the same year.
The Flugleiðir holding was reorganized as Icelandair Group (for aviation business) and FL Group (for non-aviation finance and investment business) between 2002 and 2005, with Icelandair becoming the largest and most important of eleven subsidiaries. The wet-lease and charter department, which was founded in 2003, was named Loftleiðir Icelandic, thus re-introducing a familiar name.

IcelandAir is...

...the national carrier of Iceland based at Reykjavik International Airport in the center of the Icelandic capital. It is part of the Icelandair Group and currently operates scheduled services to 35 cities in 16 countries on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean out of it's hub in Keflavik International Airport. The geographical position of Iceland allows for one-stop trans-Atlantic flights witch are one pillar of the airlines business strategy, along with traffic to and from the country.
In 2012, Icelandair transported 2,021,000 passengers, an increase of 16% compared to 2011, witch is very impressive compared to the Icelandic population of only 320.000.

Icelandair currently operates...

• 17 Boeing 757-200
•   1 Boeing 757-300
•   4 Boeing 757-200F

The average age of the fleet is about 17 years with highly renovated cabin, flight deck and winglets.

The Flight deck has been updated with a state of the art all glass cockpit.

Cabin has been fitted with comfortable leather seats and in-flight entertainment system in every seat free of charge.

And on the outside the airplanes have been fitted with winglets witch result in approx 4% fuel savings. Plus it gives the aircraft a new interesting look.

First post

On this blog I will post my experiences as a Load Control Officer at Icelandair Ground Services at Keflavik Airport in Iceland, as well as news and informations about Icelandair. Sorry but no inside corporate gossip will make it to this blog.