Airport Security Varies For Different Nationalities

The security measures an arrival at Keflavík International Airport must go through can depend on the departure country of the flight.

RÚV reports that passengers on flights arriving from Canada and Russia go through twice as many security measures as those arriving from western Europe. This also applies to those leaving Iceland for those countries.

Friðþór Eydal, a spokesperson for aiport management company ISAVIA, told reporters that the reason for the discrepancy is because of the security measures in those countries. European air authorities are not satisfied with the level of security at Canadian airports, he says, and are thus subjected to additional security measures upon arriving in a European country, Iceland amongst them.

Friðþór added that American arrivals used to go through the same treatment, but American airports have since changed their security measures to be more in harmony with European ones. A change of security regulations in Canada, he says, is already underway.