At first blush the local media hoopla over nonstop flights from KC to Iceland (of all places) seems totally over-the-top…
Which had things been better reported and explained, it might not have. However running a snoozer on the front page of the local newspaper and goofy footage of people getting off the first flight here don’t really say a lot about something that to a lot of people appear at first blush to be a longshot at best.
Au contraire.
Given a somewhat deeper dive, the move actually makes sense.
For starters Iceland – while the most sparsely populated country in Europe – is in fact a European country, and thus a springboard to larger cities like Paris, Rome and Berlin. And while it’s named after one of the coldest substances on the planet – as in “ice” – the climate there is best described as “temperate,” i.e. moderate.
For example, the all-time record high and low in destination city Reykjavik is 79.2 degrees (July 2008) and -12 degrees (January 1918).
By Kansas City standards that’s tourism weather.
Now a little background…
“KCI’s been working on this for years and they haven’t been able to bring anyone else in,” says resident KCC travel expert Jack Poessiger. “So if this works, we may get another airline deal and the Icelandair deal may expand to year round. Right now the two year deal runs until late September.”
If the deal reminds anybody of Topeka’s failed effort a few years back to schedule weekly nonstop flights to Chicago, there’s a difference, Poessiger says.
“The difference is the city of Topeka put up money guaranteeing United a certain amount of money, and once the money ran out there wasn’t enough traffic and they went away. In this case I don’t think Icelandair is getting a guaranteed amount. It’s a marketing dollar deal, not a guaranteed amount.”
Poessiger was stunned when he first got word of the deal.
Mostly because he thought the larger Norwegian Airlines was a more likely fit.
As for the fluffy local newspaper and TV news coverage the deal’s been getting, “They’re mostly cheerleaders,” Poessiger says. “Especially the television coverage of the people getting off the first flight.”
That said…
“It is a beginning,” Poessiger says. “And you have to remember that Kansas City supposedly averages 300 transatlantic departures out of here per day. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but here’s my take. I don’t see it really as a trip to Iceland; they have good connection points to Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin, Rome and London. And that’s better than Newark to Berlin.
“Plus it’s not a big airport like Newark, which can be a nightmare. So it’s definitely an alternative. Plus on your way back to Kansas City now you have to go through customs in places like Newark or Chicago or Atlanta, which can also be a nightmare. Instead, you can go through customs here in Kansas City.
“I can’t imagine people wanting to go on vacations to Iceland. I see it more as an alternative to the hassle of connecting at airports like JFK.
With one notable exception:
“Icelandair will let you interrupt your flight and spend a couple of days there with no penalty,” Poessiger says. “And then you can continue your journey to Europe. You can’t to my knowledge get that with other carriers. It has to be a connected flight. You can’t interrupt your journey.
One possible downside: should you miss your connection, it could delay your trip by as much as two or more days.
As for taking in extra travel days to see Iceland, could be a very cool thing.
The shopping possibilities sound a little iffy…the promotional pics of Reykjavil’s Kringlan Mall remind me of the foot traffic at Metcalf South before it got dozed. That said, aside from it having Dominos, Subway, Sketchers and Boss, a number of online commenters rave about Lucky Records. One dude gave a shout out to one of Lucky’s staffers named Thor who recommended a killer “new food hall around the corner.”
And as for the tourism, there are any number of waterfalls, geysers and active volcanoes to see. Snowmobile tours, secret lagoons, geothermal pools, river rafting, snorkeling, whale watching, “quirky people” – even a Game of Thrones filming location tour.
And don’t forget, Bjork and Sigur Ros are from Iceland.
The No. 1 spectator sport: Would you believe “wrestling,” as in “glima.”
So yeah, maybe there’s more to this Icelandair deal than meets the eye.
Hearne is correct. I did think that NORWEGIAN AIRLINES would have been the first carrier to pick MCI as a transatlantic destination. Why? Because they’re a big discounter adding American destinations like no other is doing right now.
And if not NORWEGIAN my other pick was WOW AIRLINES.
They’re another discounter growing its destinations in the States. Matter of fact they added St. Louis to their Iceland and connecting continental trips.
But as we all found out later….it was Icelantic instead (which incidentally is not a discount carrier.)
And there is always a chance that another—maybe domestic carrier—could add a ‘direct flight’ to Europe. London maybe?
But note I said ‘direct’—not necessarily ‘non-stop.’
So Icelandair is a higher cost airline? To what extent?
…as in comparing American, Delta, Continental vs. a Spirit or Frontier maybe?
Already have an (anniversary) 3-day weekend trip planned for the Blue Lagoon later this summer. Price was not out of line… If it pans out, we’ll take the kids a few times to explore the waterfalls/parks.
Count me in, too…
After reading up on Iceland and doing the math, it sounds like it could be a blast
My son and 2 of his buddies took a 10 day trip to Iceland. They rented an RV and traveled the entire rim road and a lot of the interior. They assembled all their drone footage into an amazing video. My son said it was the most spectacular place he had ever been. So, it’s on my travel list now.
Wow…
I’m going to add it to mine. I have a feeling it’s a relatively affordable place as well. At the very least as a stopover.