Review of Icelandair flight from Reykjavík to New York in Business

Life has gotten back to normal in Iceland after Covid. All entry and domestic restrictions have been lifted, tourists enjoy the nature of Iceland again and most flights to and from Iceland have resumed. Icelandair flies again to many airports in Europe and America. I booked a return flight from Keflavík to New York JFK in business class at a very reasonable price. I was curious to see if the level of service has gotten back to its pre-pandemic level.

Keflavík International Airport is located 50 kms from downtown Reykjavík. Driving time is about 45 minutes. Public bus no. 55 (1950 ISK), FlyBus (3499 ISK), rental cars or taxis (about 18.000 ISK) are some of the options to travel between the city and the airport. There's no railway in Iceland.

Tourism has been growing in Iceland for decades and the airport is being extended once again.

Icelandair has many flights from Iceland to Europe in the early morning between 07:00 and 08:00; these flights arrive back to Iceland between 15:00 and 16:00; leave for the US and Canada at about 17:00 and get back to Iceland next morning at about 06:00 (a few destinations in Europe also have afternoon flights). A large part of Icelandair's business is made of American leisure travellers going to Europe, often with a stopover in Iceland. Direct flights from the US to Europe are usually more expensive than from Europe to the US. Icelandair gets an important share of the transatlantic market as it offers lower prices than most of its competitors.

This poster has been at the airport for years. Most of these destinations are still flown by Icelandair, although some of them such as Anchorage or Halifax are not offered currently.

There were very long lines for economy class as ten flights were leaving at the same but there were only a few people at the business class check-in desks.

My ESTA, vaccination certificate and Covid test certificate were checked and I had to give an emergency contact and my address in the US.

Self check-in is available but is used by only a few people for the US-bound flights.

You have to go up one floor after check-in.

Fast track is available for business class passengers.

Part of the roof of the terminal building is lit with the colours of Ukraine.

Do you recognise the first two languages?

Inside the terminal building.

There's a large duty free shop and also several cafes and shops but I went straight to the lounge.

There's only one lounge at Keflavík Airport. It's used mostly by Icelandair's business class passengers and frequent fliers, holders of some credit cards and passengers of a few other airlines. Paid access is not available.

The lounge is called Saga Lounge (Icelandair's business class is called Saga Class).

The lounge is large, has several seating areas and was not crowded.

There was a cold buffet with a good choice including several Icelandic specialities. The only hot meal was the soup of the day. Note that this was between 15:00 and 16:00 where most people are between lunch and dinner.

The choice of alcoholic drinks is not huge but is probably enough for most people.

One of the coffee machines.

Toilets and showers are available inside the lounge.

The lounge serves both Schengen and non-Schengen flights so it is before immigration. It usually takes five to ten minutes to pass immigration.

Shops and cafes are available after passport control.

There's one large gate area for non-Schengen flights. It can get crowded when several flights leave within in a short time.

Priority boarding is available.

Icelandair has been mostly using B757s for many years and is the only European airline to do so but this flight was operated by one of the airline three B767's. The B767 was one of the most common aircrafts for long-haul routes ten, twenty or thirty years ago but is getting more rare nowadays. The aircraft on today's flight was TF-ISN. Not a teenager anymore: it was built 22 years ago and was used earlier by Air New Zealand, Flyglobespan, Kenya Airways, Nordwind Airlines and Saudia.

Icelandair's B767 business class has five rows in a 2-1-2 configuration: two seats next to each other on both sides and single seats in the middle. Load on this flight was 14/25 in business class. The middle seats remained empty - they are usually the least popular.

Economy class has a 2-3-2 configuration. It was quite full. Most passengers on this flight seemed to be American tourists.

I selected seat 4F, an aisle seat on the right side. I didn't have a neighbour.

Legroom is good.

Water, a blanket and a pillow were waiting on the seat.

There was also an amenity kit - quite nice for a daytime flight of this length.

Headphones were distributed a short time later.

A glass of sparkling wine was offered as a welcome drink.

The view from my seat before departure.

The flight show during taxi.

An expected flight time of 5 hours and 25 minutes was announced for a scheduled flight time of 6 hours and 10 minutes.

Push-back was at 17.08 for a scheduled departure time of 17.00. We were airborne at 17:23. The view right after take-off:

Let's have a look at the menu - there's a printed menu. There's an hors d'oeuvre, a starter, a choice of hot or cold main course and a dessert.

Here's the drink menu - note the unusually large choice of gin.

Snacks that are for sale in economy class are available free of charge in business class.

Bread baked in a stone oven, whipped butter, and Icelandic wild berry salt was served shortly after take-off.

Dinner was served at 19:00 about two hours after take-off. I selected the arctic char as a main course - the flight attendant checked with me if I knew that it was a cold meal.

Scallops with Icelandic pearl barley and a fresh shrimp salad. It was good.

Citrus arctic char, smoked salmon, reindeer pâté, and spiced sausages. The arctic char and the reindeer pâté were absolutely delicious - some of the best cold meal I've ever had on a plane. Arctic char is my favourite fish - a real delicacy. The spicy sausages didn't go well with the other ingredients so I just ignored them but everything else was just so good.

The dessert (Omnon chocolate mousse with a brownie) was good.

I had a glass (well, two glasses) of Kientz Riesling white wine which was excellent.

I had some Grand Marnier after my meal.

I noticed this equipment used for passenger announcements as I went to the lavatories. It shows the age of the aircraft.

Icelandair offers in-flight entertainment with built-in screens. I'm not sure about the exact size of the screens but they're quite large in business class.

A total of 49 movies are available. You can easily find one you're interested in. However the choice has not been updated for quite some time.

A choice of 168 TV shows

The choice of music. A large part of the available music is Icelandic.

We flew over the southermost tip of Greenland and there were some limited but nice views.

I had some Pringles and Appelsín as we approached our destination.

Flying over Maine.

Getting closer to our destination.

We approached JFK from the South. The weather was not perfect but there were some nice views. This is Jones Beach:

And this is Point Lookout:

The views right before landing:

We landed at 18.53 and were at the gate at 19.13 for a scheduled arrival time of 19.10.

Icelandair uses terminal 7 at JFK - British Airways and Iberia are the biggest airlines here.

As most passengers were US citizens there was zero waiting time for me at immigration as a foreign visitor.

JFK is not the most beautiful airport in the world but arrival was fairly efficient this time.

Thank you for reading my flight report. Please feel free to comment.