Review of Air Iceland Connect flight from Reykjavík to Nuuk in Economy

Welcome to the first flight report on this site about a flight to Greenland. I was flying from Reykjavík, Iceland to Nuuk, Greenland. Reykjavík has two main airports: Keflavík International, located 50 kms from the city centre and Reykjavík Domestic Airport, located downtown Reykjavík. You can actually walk to the domestic airport from most hotels in about 15 to 20 minutes. You can also take a cab (5 minutes, about ISK 2000) or take a public bus (5 to 10 minutes, ISK 450). Air Iceland Connect is the main airline flying from here to the Icelandic countryside (Akureyri, Egilsstadir, Isafjordur) and to various airports in Greenland (Ilulissat, Kangerlussuaq, Kulusuk, Narsarsuaq, Nuuk) and to the Faroe Islands. A smaller airline is Eagle Air flying 19 seater aircrafts to Vestmennaeyar, Höfn, Húsavík and two small villages in the Westfjord. Its office is on the other side of the runways. If you need to connect from Keflavík International, a taxi would be really expensive (around ISK 18,000). It’s better to take the Flybus to Reykjavík BSI bus terminal (ISK 2500) which is located within walking distance or a very short cab ride to the Domestic Airport.
The terminal building is really small; it looks like a bus station at many smaller towns around the world. There are only a few check-in desks, and there is also a remarkable model aircraft.

There is a basic cafeteria in the arrival area.

Check-in for our flight opened only 25 minutes before scheduled departure. For the other flights leaving before mine check-in was open even two minutes prior to scheduled departure time. Check-in was quick, it didn’t take more than two minutes.

I was through security in a few minutes.

The boarding gate was right after security. The plane flying today to Nuuk was a Bombardier Q200, TF-FXK. While the aircraft was 21 years old, the cabin was in a very good condition. It had 8 rows of 2+2 seats plus a last row of 5 seats, so a total of 37 seats. The name of the plane is Thurid.

My boarding pass was for seat 1A. The legroom for this seat was actually not so good (1C and 1D are better, and 1B is even better), so I didn’t mind when I was asked to move to 3A. Legroom here was adequate. Note that the legroom at the emergency exit row is only slightly bigger. Here is my legroom:

Here is the safety card:

Air Iceland’s magazine was quite interesting to read:

For a scheduled departure time of 13.45 the engines were started at 14.10 and we took off at 14.15. I could immediately feel strong vibrations and a high noise level. The captain announced a flight time of 3 hours and 10 minutes. We had some views over the Reykjavík area after take-off. You can see the Reykjavík beach on the first photo - it actually can get quite crowded in summer.

Air Iceland offers only free coffee, tea and water on its domestic flights and flights to Greenland. A few other items are available for purchase:

I had some water, Appelsin (orange juice) and skyr (Icelandic dessert, looks like yoghurt, which is actually a kind of cheese).

It was cloudy until we got to the east coast of Greenland where we had some very nice views.

It was cloudy again over Greenland inland, but beautiful sunny again on the west coast as we were approaching Nuuk.

Views over Nuuk, capital city of Greenland:

Our plane and a beautiful Air Greenland aircraft In Nuuk

We landed at 15.17 Greenlandic time. After arrival we just walked to the terminal building. Our luggage arrived in 10 minutes. The exit from the building is not more than a 10 meters walk from the luggage claim area. There is no border control in Greenand for flights coming from Iceland or Denmark.