This summer I was travelling with my family to Iceland and Venice for a few weeks. Iceland is somewhere I always wanted to go to, and I am very exited to finally be seeing that country. My Mom really wanted to go to the architecture biennale in Venice and I found a really cheap flight VCE-JFK via IST on TK for $377 per person. After Venice I will be joining my family on my Dad's side for a week long beach holiday at Bethany Beach, Delaware. After that I will be returning to SFO (or OAK, actually) on WN from BWI. To clear out any confusing IATA codes HFN is Höfn, a town in southern Iceland, and FEI is a small Icelandic domestic carrier called Eagle Air (it doesn't have an ICAO code). RKV is Reykjavik's smaller domestic airport. Here is a map of my routing from gcmap.com (excluding my one domestic flight from RVK-HFN):
VCE-IST TK1870 Y Coming Soon IST-JFK TK003 Y Coming Soon
BWI-OAK WN565 Y
My routing from gcmap.com:
My domestic flight:
This is my Icelandic internal flight from Reykjavik to Höfn. The reason why I'm not flying from KEF is that Reykjavik has a small domestic airport in the city centre in addition to the (also comparitivley small) international airport at Keflavik.
Today, I will be flying Eagle Air which is a small Icelandic domestic airline. The flight was very expensive for only 55 mins domestic flight but FEI has a monopoly on the RVK-HFN route. In fact, no domestic route in Iceland is operated by more than one airline. Is that a law? Thanks in advance. EagleAir operates two flights daily to Höfn (one morning, one afternoon). However, I was doing some research about chartering a plane, but while I was working on this, the morning flight sold out. FEI has a policy of fixed prices so at least the afteroon flight didn't cost me any more. But unfortunatley this did make me unable to tour the Jökullsarlon Lagoon :( :(
FLIGHT REPORT
I arrive about 30 min before my flight at Eagle Airs terminal at RVK as instructed
FEI "Terminal"
Eagle Air logo on the window:
Check in was just giving our name to the man behind the desk and handing over our luggage.
The terminal just feels like a waiting room with pictures on the walls of FEIs small fleet of Jetstreams.
There is however a food offering. Bad coffee, too sweet macaroons, and packaged sandwhiches.
I had a macaroon and a cup of coffee, both were pretty bad
The only other offerings were sodas and snacks availible for purchase through this vending machine:
Our plane, TF-ORA
Eagle Air hanger:
The boarding call isn't made very well, or very loudly, so I almost miss my flight.
Departures sign:
The plane's tail during boarding:
We are the last onboard the plane:
The safety video is already halfway through:
There aren't any cabin crew on this flight, nor is there any inflight catering.
Legroom is really horrible, even for a 55 min flight. I'm also really short.
Seatback pocket contents:
Both the airsickness bag and the safty card have already seen a few flights and the saftey card has all sorts of gunk in it.
There is no catering, so this tray table will not be needed:
While taxiing, we can see several popular tourist sites in Reykjavik
Perlan Dome:
Hallgrímskirkja Church:
For some reason there is an old FI plane here:
Takeoff!!
There is an industrial area below:
Some inflight pics:
The pilot announces we are now descending to Hörnafjordur (alternative name to Höfn, referring to the general area around the town):
Landing:
We then taxi along the runway in the opposite direction:
The terminal at Höfn:
We park on the tarmac:
CONCLUSION
Both Reykjavik and Höfn's airports do their jobs efficiently and both have gret access (RVK is in the city centre, and HFN is a 10 min drive), so no complaints!!
The cabin was old and cramped. I wouldn't even spend 30 mins in there!
There are no cabin crew, so I rated cabin crew a two
There is no entertainment. The flight felt like two hours even though it was less than one hour. They could easilly at least show our current position on the dropdown screens?
There was no catering exept the disgusting coffee and sandwiches at the airport, which doesn't really count. Airlines with similar aircraft (Federal Air in South Africa comes to mind) offer you at least bottled water and potato crips from a basket in the back of the cabin on flight of similar duration.
I feel that Eagle Air takes advantage of the fact that it has monopolies on all its routes to charge outrageuosly high fares and to make no effort whatsoever with onboard product. Eagle Air is not reccommended to anyone flying internally in Iceland. You could instead fly Air Iceland, whose fares are half as much as Eagle Air's, and offers catering onboard, to another nearby airport.
See more
Verdict
Eagle Air Iceland
1.6/10
Cabin2.0
Cabin crew2.0
Entertainment/wifi1.0
Meal/catering1.5
Reykjavík - RKV
8.9/10
Efficiency9.5
Access9.5
Services9.0
Cleanliness7.5
Hornafjörður - HFN
7.4/10
Efficiency9.5
Access8.5
Services3.5
Cleanliness8.0
Conclusion
Both Reykjavik and Höfn's airports do their jobs efficiently and both have gret access (RVK is in the city centre, and HFN is a 10 min drive), so no complaints!!
The cabin was old and cramped. I wouldn't even spend 30 mins in there!
There are no cabin crew, so I rated cabin crew a two
There is no entertainment. The flight felt like two hours even though it was less than one hour. They could easilly at least show our current position on the dropdown screens?
There was no catering exept the disgusting coffee and sandwiches at the airport, which doesn't really count. Airlines with similar aircraft (Federal Air in South Africa comes to mind) offer you at least bottled water and potato crips from a basket in the back of the cabin on flight of similar duration.
I feel that Eagle Air takes advantage of the fact that it has monopolies on all its routes to chage outrageuosly high fares and to make no effort whatsoever with onboard product. Eagle Air is not reccommended to anyone doing internal flights in Iceland. You could instead fly Air Iceland, whose fares are half as much as Eagle Air's, and offers catering onboard to another nearby airport.
2 LIKESLIKE TO THANK THE AUTHORTHANKS ! FLIGHT-REPORT LIKED
Thank you for your great flight-report! Unfortunately, your flight wasn't so nice. I am sorry to hear that. It's poor that you had no catering on the flight. I still hope that you had an amazing trip to Iceland.
RKV is definitely a convenient airport, being right in the middle of town. It's also cool that there are views of Hallgrímskirkja and Perlan--some of the city's main landmarks. How unfortunate that FEI was an overall bad experience.Though IFE on such a small aircraft would be unrealistic--I'm surprised they had screens at all on that plane.
Too bad it was overcast! The scenery must be gorgeous when clear. Thanks for sharing!
I was really looking forward to views of Vatnajökull, but whether didn't cooperate. The screens were nessecery for the safety demo because there aren't FAs. Thanks for dropping by.
Flight-Report is a free website hosting more than 500 000 pictures and 17 000 reviews, without ads, this website can't exist. We understand that ads can be annoying, this is why we only display a maximum of 2 non-invasive ads per page.
To continue using Flight-Report, we invite you to add Flight-Report to your blocker's "white list".
1 reviews
4 Comments
Unfortunately, your flight wasn't so nice. I am sorry to hear that. It's poor that you had no catering on the flight.
I still hope that you had an amazing trip to Iceland.
See you!
Too bad it was overcast! The scenery must be gorgeous when clear. Thanks for sharing!
Login to post a comment.