August 22, 20177 yr ^Happy to provide! Just checked their website---CLE is not on it yet. I assume it will be updated soon. http://www.icelandair.us/
August 22, 20177 yr Holy crap!! I maintain my thoughts that Iceland is an odd "get", how many people need to go to Iceland? But if they are partnering with another airline, I guess traffic could be routed through CLE. Nevertheless, cool stuff
August 22, 20177 yr Holy crap!! I maintain my thoughts that Iceland is an odd "get", how many people need to go to Iceland? But if they are partnering with another airline, I guess traffic could be routed through CLE. Nevertheless, cool stuff Iceland has been booming as a tourist destination the past few years, so there is definitely demand. That said, Icelandair's business model is based on offering Reykjavik as a connecting point between the US and destinations in continental Europe, while offering passengers the opportunity/option to add in a short trip to Iceland during the stopover at no additional cost.
August 22, 20177 yr Holy crap!! I maintain my thoughts that Iceland is an odd "get", how many people need to go to Iceland? But if they are partnering with another airline, I guess traffic could be routed through CLE. Nevertheless, cool stuff Most folks who fly into Keflavik Airport are not staying in Iceland but then taking another flight on Icelandair to European destinations. We have flown them once, not a bad stop over of a couple hours to stretch the legs and walk around before continuing on to final destination.
August 22, 20177 yr Look at the Cuyahoga in the link (http://www.mbl.is/vidskipti/frettir/2017/08/22/icelandair_hefur_flug_til_cleveland/). Finally a photo that accurately depicts how blue the water is!
August 22, 20177 yr Holy crap!! I maintain my thoughts that Iceland is an odd "get", how many people need to go to Iceland? But if they are partnering with another airline, I guess traffic could be routed through CLE. Nevertheless, cool stuff Most folks who fly into Keflavik Airport are not staying in Iceland but then taking another flight on Icelandair to European destinations. We have flown them once, not a bad stop over of a couple hours to stretch the legs and walk around before continuing on to final destination. Yes---and this allows people to avoid JFK/EWR/ORD/ATL/YYZ/DTW, etc.
August 22, 20177 yr I wonder what aircraft they will use on the route? 777? 757-2 most likely until they get the new 737-8 & 9 Max. They have 767-3 but they use those on larger further routes.
August 22, 20177 yr https://www.google.com/amp/www.cleveland.com/articles/16036984/cleveland_to_europe_airport_di.amp "He called Icelandair "a very intriguing option," with one-stop service from the United States, via Reykjavik, to more than two dozen destinations in Europe. Just this month, the airline launched service from Chicago to the Iceland capital." This was a 2015 article. Sounds like they've been working hard for this one
August 22, 20177 yr I wonder what aircraft they will use on the route? 777? 757-2 most likely until they get the new 737-8 & 9 Max. They have 767-3 but they use those on larger further routes. So it will be standard business-class seating, not lie-flat beds. I'd probably still opt for United or American via NYC on a wide-body for the overnight. Same issue I had with the LGW-CLE B757 service from Continental years ago. But--glad to hear they are coming to CLE. Should be great for leisure passengers and others who aren't as picky as me! :)
August 22, 20177 yr After Freiburgs explanation of their business model, I'm much more likely to fly this than through the east coast. Should make travel significantly less stressful to deplane at a smaller airport, get some rest and explore, then continue on
August 22, 20177 yr Iceland is incredible, by the way. Also cool in the sense that you can be in "Europe" and make it a 3-4 day trip. Very manageable.
August 22, 20177 yr I flew this way via Wow Air out of Pittsburgh, they flew an A321 which is about the same seating capacity of the 757. The flight was packed from people making connections in Iceland, I was one of the few getting off and exploring Iceland (such a beautiful country!). Wow Air is known for their affordable airfares, so I'm curious to see if Iceland Air has similar fares!
August 22, 20177 yr already wondering what gate they will go out of. lol Partner airlines JetBlue Finnair Air Iceland Alaska Airlines
August 22, 20177 yr already wondering what gate they will go out of. lol I'd imagine they would have to use the A concourse, in order to offload into the FCIS "facility"? I don't believe there are any plans for a Preclearance facility in Iceland.
August 22, 20177 yr I'd imagine they would have to use the A concourse, in order to offload into the FCIS "facility"? I don't believe there are any plans for a Preclearance facility in Iceland. That could change considering Iceland Air's expansion in the USA. "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
August 22, 20177 yr I'd imagine they would have to use the A concourse, in order to offload into the FCIS "facility"? I don't believe there are any plans for a Preclearance facility in Iceland. That could change considering Iceland Air's expansion in the USA. It could, but doubtful given the only overseas PC facilities currently are in Ireland. I could see one in a city like Frankfurt (especially with the large number of American citizens living there) long before one in Reykjavik.
August 22, 20177 yr ^not likely. Pre-clearance is expensive and would have to be funded by them. Plus it doesn't work well with what the airline wants. If you want to connect in KEF from Europe---the connection could not be a simple 1-2 hours---it would have to be long enough for people to clear immigration which could take hours. A headache, FI would not want. On the traveler side, I'd MUCH rather clear CPB in CLE than in KEF.
August 22, 20177 yr Við verðum öll að átta sig á því að alþjóðleg áfangastaður muni líklega setja okkur yfir 10.000.000 þröskuldinn
August 22, 20177 yr Look at the Cuyahoga in the link (http://www.mbl.is/vidskipti/frettir/2017/08/22/icelandair_hefur_flug_til_cleveland/). Finally a photo that accurately depicts how blue the water is! They also gave us credit for 2.2 million inhabitants. :-)
August 22, 20177 yr instead of 3 million! (And the plain dealer, in its infinite wisdom, REPEATED that incorrect number in its story about the new service!)
August 22, 20177 yr instead of 3 million! (And the plain dealer, in its infinite wisdom, REPEATED that incorrect number in its story about the new service!) The 2.2MM is only the Cleveland/Elyria MSA which doesn't even include Summit County, which is 20 minutes from downtown CLE. Add Akron (Summit) metro =2.9MM. Add Canton - and you have 3.5MM+ within an hour of airport. Lots of folks.Not sure why nobody gets the right, even locally. NEO isn't as tidily wrapped up onto one city like Columbus, etc...
August 22, 20177 yr I used IcelandAir a few years ago from London to Reykjavik then to Seattle. If I remember correctly we went business class for the short flight from LHR to KEF for less than $200. I enjoyed the service very much. The airport was small and easy. I will absolutely consider this option first whenever flying to Europe. Might be worthy of its own thread
August 22, 20177 yr instead of 3 million! (And the plain dealer, in its infinite wisdom, REPEATED that incorrect number in its story about the new service!) The 2.2MM is only the Cleveland/Elyria MSA which doesn't even include Summit County, which is 20 minutes from downtown CLE. Add Akron (Summit) metro =2.9MM. Add Canton - and you have 3.5MM+ within an hour of airport. Lots of folks.Not sure why nobody gets the right, even locally. NEO isn't as tidily wrapped up onto one city like Columbus, etc... From an "Air market" perspective, we are about a 4.5MM city. But when I talk about CLE in general, I consider it to be the city and seven immediately surrounding counties---so 3MM people. The CLE MSA boundary is dead wrong--and should include summit and portage--if it did (and Akron politicians weren't trying to destroy the region from an image perspective by insisting that CLE suburbs in Summit county are not part of metro cleveland), then there would be less confusion about the population of "Cleveland" which is 3mm.
August 22, 20177 yr I took WOW from Boston last summer (connecting on to Germany) and had a decent experience, but there was definitely a "low-cost" element to it. It was certainly a cool experience to land in Iceland at 3am local time and watch the airport come to life as more and more connecting flights landed between NA and Europe. Seeing the sun up around that time was also pretty sweet! The major advantage to IcelandAir is that although it's relatively low-cost, it generally flies into Primary airports in Europe, as opposed to the B or C airports that many of the cheapo airlines (like Wow and Norwegian) fly into. I'm curious to see what the pricing will look like for this. Although there is no direct competitor to Europe from CLE, they'll also be competing with people who connect through Newark or Chicago or Toronto instead of Keflavik. I generally try to use miles for bigger trips, but if the price is right I would absolutely consider this option.
August 22, 20177 yr This is all blown out of proportion and is not "embarrassing". You can operate a fine airport and not have a Europe destination. Newsflash, cleveland isn't Chicago or NY. And can we wait and see how Pittsburgh does before we crown them the class of all airports. Just because they launch a TATL doesn't mean it's successful It's not blown out of proportion. I can tell you first hand, like I've said in the past, Cleveland is behind the eight-ball to get international service. How much service has Cleveland gotten since UA shut down Europe? That's why I get wound up about it, I know no Euro service is coming in the foreseeable future. I'm 95% sure that St. Louis and Indianapolis will see Euro service next. I do hope I'm wrong. Also, I'm more than a frequent flier and I have a ton of contacts in the industry. I advocate for Cleveland even though I'm here in DC and I rarely hear good things about the people running the airport there. Hopkins hit a new low with the recent snow removal fiasco and everyone, I mean everyone, in the industry remembers it including folks outside of the United States. It's not a matter of opinion to say that Hopkins perception is not OK. The city needs to get it's act together on this issue. AmRap, get up on in here and just own it. We still love you
August 22, 20177 yr It's been well reported what Pittsburgh is giving WOW in return for the 4x weekly service there. I'd like to know what kind of deal Hopkins' Kennedy struck.
August 22, 20177 yr The criticism was that cleveland didn't push hard for the WOW route that Pittsburgh won. It's clear now that they were fighting for the better airline
August 23, 20177 yr I have flown Icelandair to Europe - and spent the "night" (more of a "dusk") as a stopover in Iceland. Strangely beautiful and memorable place.
August 23, 20177 yr Icelandair confirms (via Twitter) that the CLE flights "will most likely be served by both 757s and 767s"...
August 23, 20177 yr Of course this and Kyrie going to the Celtics happens when I'm on vacation! I'll own it but I'm not upset. I'm very happy for Clevelanders. Icelandair service is wayyyyy better than WOW! Props to Kennedy for getting this done. Let's hope better days are ahead.
August 23, 20177 yr ^I'd be surprised if they use a 767 for the route. It may be that the person in charge of the twitter account doesn't really know---as he/she was actually posed a leading question, "B757 or B767?" instead of "what type of equipment will you use?"
August 23, 20177 yr Props to Kennedy for getting this done. Let's hope better days are ahead. Props? I thought they said it would be a jet? Ba-da-bump-bump "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
August 23, 20177 yr Really exciting news! Big day for CLE in a few different ways (airport, NuCLEus, uptown, cavs, Doug fisters 1-hitter CG :x ....) So the WOW flight to PIT is a popular route, but will Icelandair have similar demand? There are almost 750 seats each way every week on their 752. Also, I know it has been 8 years since cleveland flew to Europe with United, but does anyone know the last time a foreign airline flew nonstop across the pond?
August 23, 20177 yr Price wars. To Iceland. https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/flights/todayinthesky/2017/08/23/wow-air-known-99-europe-fares-adds-four-new-u-s-cities/591771001/
August 23, 20177 yr ^^You beat me to it!! For all of the criticism that the airport has taken from some people, especially from some on UO, maybe they aren't so incompetent after all!! I'm sure that some on here will give all the credit to the new airport director Robert Kennedy. But I'm pretty sure that his predecessors deserve some credit too, because this effort probably started a few years ago, according to articles I've read. And as much as some people on here like to criticize Mayor Jackson, he also deserves credit!!!
August 23, 20177 yr Hopkins tweeted they have another announcement coming today at 9:15 Yes. WOW is also starting a 4x weekly flight to Iceland
August 23, 20177 yr Wow adding St. Louis, Cleveland, Detroit, Cincinnati https://www.google.com/amp/amp.usatoday.com/story/591771001/
August 23, 20177 yr This is all crazy. Not sure how I feel about that. Hope it doesn't ruin the IcelandAir service
August 23, 20177 yr This is all crazy. Not sure how I feel about that. Hope it doesn't ruin the IcelandAir service I would imagine they will co-exist fine initially. ULCC versus a more standard airline experience. Plus, they have a different connecting route network... both airlines will be doing a lot of European connecting through KEF. It is interesting that Cleveland is one of only a handful of North American cities served by both of those airlines, though.
August 23, 20177 yr Cant see WOW being able to compete in the CLE market with Iceland Air and the business travelers. Only one will likely survive. To be honest, Cant see them doing to well in Cincy either. If I were a traveler looking for a gateway to Europe, I would fly Delta almost every time and have amenities as opposed to have an 8 hour flight on a no frills carrier. Flying from Ohio to Florida is one thing. Flying transatlantic or to Hawaii is a whole new ballgame.
August 23, 20177 yr Cant see WOW being able to compete in the CLE market with Iceland Air and the business travelers. Only one will likely survive. To be honest, Cant see them doing to well in Cincy either. If I were a traveler looking for a gateway to Europe, I would fly Delta almost every time and have amenities as opposed to have an 8 hour flight on a no frills carrier. Flying from Ohio to Florida is one thing. Flying transatlantic or to Hawaii is a whole new ballgame. Let me introduce you to Kentucky and SE Indiana residents. Wow will be successful in CVG, just like Frontier and Allegiant have had the success they have had in Cincinnati. Alot of penny pinchers in the surrounding area.
August 23, 20177 yr That press conference was nothing short of embarrassing. That's the CEO of an international companies first impression, yikes.
August 23, 20177 yr That press conference was nothing short of embarrassing. That's the CEO of an international companies first impression, yikes. What happened?
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