Icelandair welcomed more then 264,000 travellers in August this year, a sharp rise from the 80,000 the airline transported during the same period in 2020. Of the total number of customers last month, 241,000 of them were international travellers. That’s a rise from 195,000 in July of this year and 67,000 in August 2020, reports Vísir.
Iceland saw a total of 145,000 travellers to Iceland in August of this year, an increase from 53,000 in August 2020. 22,600 people travelled on domestic flights in the country during the same period, compared to just 12,400 last year.
Bogi Nils Bogason, CEO of Icelandair Group, states that the airline’s departures from Keflavík Airport rose from roughly 30 per week in May of this year to around 200 in August. Icelandair’s forthcoming winter flight schedule displays 160 departures per week to 25 locations–around 65-75% of its 2019 winter schedule.
Every aspect of the tourism industry has sustained severe financial hits during the past 19 months of border restrictions and domestic disease control measures. This is one promising example of the air travel business rebounding in the midst of the still-evolving COVID-19 pandemic, lead by the more transmittable Delta variant.
Note: Due to the effect the Coronavirus is having on tourism in Iceland, it’s become increasingly difficult for the Grapevine to survive. If you enjoy our content and want to help the Grapevine’s journalists do things like eat and pay rent, please consider joining our High Five Club.
You can also check out our shop, loaded with books, apparel and other cool merch, that you can buy and have delivered right to your door.
Also you can get regular news from Iceland—including the latest notifications on eruptions, as soon as they happen—by signing up to our newsletter.
Buy subscriptions, t-shirts and more from our shop right here!
