easyJet passengers flying to Iceland from the UK today were among a select group people anywhere in the world to have a front row seat for one the most spectacular natural phenomenon’s – a total solar eclipse.
Only visible from two places on earth, the remote Faroe Islands and Norway’s Svalbard archipelago, the total eclipse occurs when the moon fully covers the sun – resulting in a complete blackout.
Flights EZY 2295 and EZY 1805, which departed from both Luton and Manchester at 07:45 and EZY 6747 from Belfast at 08:05, should have passed almost directly over the Faroe Islands at the right time, giving passengers one of the closest and least obstructed views of a total eclipse anywhere in the world.
The rest of the UK only got to view a partial eclipse and even then, with the Met office predicting cloud across parts of the country, the chances of those areas seeing anything at all was less likely.
Speaking prior to the event, Ali Gayward, commercial manager for Iceland, said:
‘It’s great that easyJet passengers will be in the right place at the right time on Friday and are set to be rewarded the best view anywhere in the world from 37,000 feet.’
easyJet operates 28 times a week to Reykjavik from eight airports across Europe and carries in excess of 200,000 passengers per year to and from Reykjavik. Tourism in Iceland has increased by 40 percent over the last two years, helped by the introduction of affordable flights.
