17 August, 2019

Icelandair drops the Boeing 737 Max from its flight schedule until the end of the year!

Icelandair has updated its flight schedule until the end of December 2019 as it does not anticipate the Boeing 737 MAX aircraft to be in operation during that time. The changes also reflect other market developments.

The total seat capacity in November and December will be increased by almost 3% compared with the same period last year. The seat capacity to Europe will increase considerably, for example to Copenhagen, Dublin, Brussels and Berlin. However, the total seat capacity to North America will decrease, which can be explained by the changes in the number of destinations compared to last year which has already been announced. In addition, Portland will not be part of the Company’s winter schedule but will resume in the spring of 2020. Despite this, seat capacity to certain North American destinations will increase, such as Minneapolis, Vancouver, Denver and Orlando.



Over the last few months, Icelandair has been focusing on meeting demand in the markets to and from Iceland and has never transported as many passengers to and from Iceland in the period January through July as this year, or a total of over 1.4 million, which is a 26% increase year-on-year.

The leasing agreement of one of the five aircraft, which Icelandair has been operating this summer to minimize the impact of the MAX suspension on the Company, its passengers and the Icelandic travel industry, has been extended until the end of October. Other leasing agreements in relation to the MAX suspension will not be extended.

As reported in Icelandair‘s Q2 results, the negative financial impact of the suspension of the MAX aircraft quantified to date was estimated USD 140 million given that the suspension would last until the end of October. Further financial impact of the suspension is uncertain at this time. Icelandair is already in discussions with Boeing regarding compensation for all the financial loss resulting from the suspension.



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