Competition for Icelandair

The British charter flight Astraeus, which flies out of Gatwick airport in the UK, has plans to apply for permit from the Icelandic Government to fly from Iceland to the United States. The flights will be in co-operation with Iceland Express. Iceland Express has already announced their plans to begin scheduling flights from Iceland to New York and Boston next spring, in direct competition with Icelandair.

Astraeus and Iceland Express are financially linked. Fons, the ownership company of Pálmi Haraldsson and Jóhannes Kristinsson, owns 51 percent share in Astraeus. They paid 650 million kronur for the shares. Fons also fully owns Iceland Express. The plan is to use Boeing 757 owned by Astraeus for the flights to the United States. Iceland Express does not own aircrafts but has a wide sales net and routes to Scandinavia. Iceland Express passengers from Scandinavia then have the possibility to fly to Iceland and then the United States and vice versa.