Icelandair has said that it has commenced offering a new year-round service from Belfast City Airport (BHD) to Reykjavik (KEF), starting June 1, 2017.
The new service will operate up to three times a week on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. The flight time is 2:55 hours to and from George Best Belfast City Airport.
The new Belfast route is operated by Air Iceland Connect on its 72 seat Bombardier Q400 aircraft in a code sharing partnership with Icelandair, offering connections at Keflavik International Airport. The Belfast-Reykjavik flight provides connections with Icelandair’s wide network of destinations in the US and Canada.
Brian Ambrose, Chief Executive of George Best Belfast City Airport, said: ‘This is a hugely exciting period for Belfast City Airport following our recent co-hosting of the Routes Europe conference, and the launch of our new three-times weekly flight to Reykjavik will help continue the positive momentum.
‘There has been strong demand for the flights since they were announced in December, with the route offering passengers an extremely convenient connection to a host of destinations in the USA and Canada, and we are confident this will continue to grow.’
‘Icelandair is proud to welcome Belfast on board as our latest UK gateway, working again in partnership with our sister airline Air Iceland Connect who will operate the service. This addition improves our connectivity and enables us to carry even more passengers to our 18 gateways across the US and Canada, via our hub in Reykjavik,’ said Birkir Holm Guonason, Icelandair CEO.
Gerry Lennon, Visit Belfast Chief Executive, added: ‘Air connectivity is critical to us welcoming more international visitors to Belfast and achieving the city’s ambition of doubling tourism spend by 2021.
‘Icelandair’s new service and extensive global network enables Visit Belfast and our tourism partners to proactively engage with potential visitors, from not only Iceland but other key markets including North America.’
Icelandair is also offering flights to a new US destination – Philadelphia – starting May 30 2017, operating four times a week from Reykjavik (KEF) to Philadelphia (PHL) until September 20, 2017. Flights from all seven UK gateways will connect to this. The airline will also begin flights to Tampa, Florida on September 7, 2017, it said.
