Icelandair is rebuilding its US route network as Iceland opens to vaccinated tourists.- Regular flights to Boston, New York, Seattle, Chicago, Denver, and Washington, D.C. are scheduled for May.
- Americans need only their paper vaccination card to enter the country.
The summer of vaccinated
Starting April 6, vaccinated travelers from the US will be allowed into Iceland with just their paper vaccination certificate from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It's the first European country to open its doors to Americans with no testing or quarantine required for visitors upon arrival, creating a potential boom for tourism and the country's national airline.
Icelandair is already ramping up its US network by resuming regular service to five American cities in May, in addition to its current service to Boston. New York, Seattle, Chicago, Denver, and Washington, D.C. are slated to be the first to receive the non-stop flights again after a nearly year-long pause for many.
Birna Osk Einarsdottir, Icelandair's chief commercial officer, is "optimistic," that the airline will return to its full slate of planned US destinations for 2021 in June, just in time for the summer travel season. Service to Portland, Oregon has already been scheduled for July 1, and flights to destinations including Orlando, Florida are planned for the summer.
"The plan is, of course, to return to full strength as soon as possible in the US, our largest market, but realistically, it might take 2-3 years for the route network to be back to 2019 size," Einarsdottir told Insider.
Pent-up demand also isn't driving up Icelandair's prices too high as the country reopens. A new fare sale is promising round-trip prices as low as $349 in a bid to quickly drum up tourism. The airline is also waiving change fees to give flyers greater flexibility when traveling.
Iceland doesn't currently require a "vaccine passport" for travel and travelers can enter with just their paper vaccination certificates. But some of Icelandair's destination countries, including those in the EU, have expressed a desire to implement the standardized protocol and the airline is ready to begin accepting them.
"It would be extremely good for travel to restart if we could join forces in that and find a common mechanism for this," Einarsdottir said.
The word is out about Iceland and its flag carrier isn't the only airline trying to get tourists to visit the Land of Fire and Ice. Delta Air Lines is similarly restarting Iceland services on the heels of the country's reopening. Existing routes to Reykjavik from New York and Minneapolis are scheduled to resume in May, along with a new route from Boston.
American travelers have successfully been entering the country since March 18, when Iceland first began accepting inculcated visitors. Andy Luten, one of the first American tourists to enter Iceland under the new rules, told Insider in March that entering the country was surprisingly easy, despite the ongoing pandemic.
But while vaccinated American visitors can visit with ease, Iceland won't be the stepping stone to mainland Europe as it once was. American citizens without residency or citizenship in a Schengen Area country won't be allowed to travel further into Europe than Iceland, at least until the US and European Union ease their mutual travel restrictions
"Until then - welcome to Iceland!" Einarsdottir said.