The Icelandair Group has announced that it will be pulling Air Iceland Connect as a brand as it looks to combine both its domestic and international services under one main carrier. According to reports by Iceland’s national broadcaster, RUV the airline group will discontinue using the Air Iceland Connect brand from next Tuesday.
Back in March 2020, Icelandair Group made the decision to integrate the operations of Air Iceland Connect with the flight operations of Icelandair. At the time the airline continued to operate under its own Air Operators Certificate (AOC) and was a completely separate company from Icelandair.
The announcement which was made around this time last year simply stated that all supporting functions, such as sales, marketing, operations, finance, HR and IT would be integrated into Icelandair’s operations. At the time there was no indication from the Icelandair Group about the overall future of the Air Iceland Connect brand.
Air Iceland Connect currently has a fleet of two De Havilland Canada Dash 8-400s and three De Havilland Canada Dash 8-200s. The airline mainly operates domestic flights from Iceland’s capital Reykjavik to destinations like Isafjordur, Akureyri and Egilsstadir, as well as to Kulusuk, Narsarsuaq, Nuuk and Ilulissat in Greenland. Air Iceland Connect was introduced back in 2017 as the new brand name for Flugfélag Íslands and went on to establish itself as a well-recognised regional carrier in Iceland.
One year on, questions about the future of the Air Iceland Connect brand have now been confirmed by the Icelandair Group, with the carrier’s brand set to be pulled. For the past year, the Icelandair Group has been actively working with both Air Iceland Connect and Icelandair as part of a decision to merge the two companies together, but it still is surprising that the group have decided to drop the Air Iceland Connect.
In a statement published by Iceland’s national broadcaster, RUV, a director of Icelandair Group, Bogi Nils Bogason said, “In the longer term, when the provision of domestic flights will become prominent in the Icelandair booking system, our hope is that with powerful marketing and connection to our route network in Europe and North America, we will succeed in increasing the number of tourists on domestic flights.”
The airline group confirmed to the state broadcaster that passengers will still be able to book flights that were previously operated by Air Iceland Connect. However, from March 16th services from Reykjavík to Bíldudalur and Gjögur, and from Akureyri to Þórshöfn and Grímsey will be available through Norlandair’s website which jointly operates flights with Air Iceland Connect. All other domestic services will be available through Icelandair’s website.
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Source: https://aeronewsx.com/icelandair-to-discontinue-air-iceland-connect-brand-local-media/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=icelandair-to-discontinue-air-iceland-connect-brand-local-media
