Icelandair launches flights from Detroit to Iceland

[Atticus]

I think this new flight is a great addition for DTW, and the flight will do well financially.

As mentioned upthread, I would also guess the majority of passengers who end up taking this flight will be connecting onward to Europe on the cheap, even though obviously there will still be many who use it just to visit beautiful Iceland. Delta has been able to get away with semi-monopolistic pricing from DTW for a long time, which suppresses Transatlantic demand by pricing out some potential passengers. This flight will help bring a more affordable alternative, albeit with the Iceland layover. You get what you pay for… but at least now there is that option.

I also suspect that DTW has been on Icelandair’s radar for a while, but the flight wasn’t able to be added because the planes Icelandair needed to fly the route were in production delay for several years. Now that Iceland air finally has the planes in possession, they can add the route. It only seats 162 passengers, so they don’t need to sell as many tickets as compared to the large wide body planes Delta uses on their European flights.

Again, I think it’s great for the DTW market to have this competition. There are also some pretty good inaugural flight deals for those looking to travel in summer 2023, but I would buy quick. Those prices aren’t going to stay low much longer.