Very short connection in Reykjavik

If Iceland Air sold it as a single ticket, you should be fine.

If you bought separate tickets, reach for the Tums.

Reykjavik (KEF) is a small, well-organized airport, and Icelandair does these one-hour connections every day, between North American and European destinations. You should be fine, as I have been multiple times. With one ticket, as your post implies, Icelandair will get you to Zurich or home if anything should go wrong.

Thank you for your replies.
Yes it is one ticket for RT to ZRH w/1 hour stop over at Reykjavik both ways..

If first leg of the trip is delayed, and I miss the connection, do Icelandair have partner airlines they can book you for the same day??
It's real important that I arrive and depart as scheduled..

Thank you..

This is how IcelandAir is. The majority of their layovers are 1 hour or less. It’s a very small airport, but their customs is not efficient. We’ve done US to Switzerland via IcelandAir multiple times and every single time the plane has been held because half the plane hasn’t made it through customs yet. Basically the gist is, make your way as fast as you can but don’t stress, there is a strong likelihood that your plane is going to be held for everyone else in your situation. They run it this way for some unknown reason, but we have yet to miss a connection, even when our 45 minute layover was spent standing in a customs line. Maybe one day they will improve this process. I know they are adding onto the airport, maybe with the intention of taking care of this notorious IcelandAir issue.

I have missed a connection in Keflavik! Our flight from Munich to Keflavik was delayed. We arrived in Keflavik with 10 minutes time remaining and prepared to run. As we approached the gate on landing, our phones started going off and telling us that Iceland Air had rescheduled us for the same flight the next day. There were a good 20 some people in the same situation. Our only option was to go to customer service where they cheerfully gave us hotel, transportation, and meal vouchers and a brochure on how to apply for EU compensation.

Our hotel was fine, meal vouchers sort of worked, and transportation worked as well. We made it home a day late. It cost just under $400 to change final flights home by a day. This was later reimbursed by trip insurance. Each passenger did receive 600 euros in compensation.

It worked out okay for us to be delayed by a day, but it sounds as if that might not be the case for you.

I missed the portion of your message about the importance of your arrival/departure times. If that’s indeed a non-negotiable, then you’re going to want to change to a bigger carrier through a larger airport. If you do IcelandAir you’re at the mercy of them only. Flying through a major airport is going to give you much more flexibility if a missed connection happens.

As I said, we’ve had them hold the plane for us on every trip, but obviously that’s not a guarantee.

It's real important that I arrive and depart as scheduled..

If being late is a disaster, and not just an annoyance, then traveling a day earlier to give yourself a cushion is a plan to consider.

What airport are you starting from? Pennsylvania (my birthplace) is a big state.
And why is it so important you arrive precisely on time? Swiss trains are very frequent and run from very early to late.

Hi Carol now retired..
Thank you for your reply..
You commented...
" Our hotel was fine, meal vouchers sort of worked, and transportation worked as well. We made it home a day late. It cost just under $400 to change final flights home by a day. "

If you had hotel, meal and transportation vouchers - why were there extra $400 cost? - was this in excess of the vouchers the airline provided??

Hi Sam and Joe32F
I misstated this statement.. "It's real important that I arrive and depart as scheduled.."
Meant to say, that it's important that I arrive and depart on the day scheduled.. It's not catastrophic that I arrive or depart few hours late.. as a matter of fact, that is to be expected on many of my travels..
but I would like to arrive on the day printed on my boarding pass -

This is how IcelandAir is. The majority of their layovers are 1 hour
or less. It’s a very small airport, but their customs is not
efficient.

You don't pass through customs when exiting Europe. You pass through immigration (specifically exit passport control). Customs you have only on arrival in Europe, after you have picked up your luggage, and usually just involves walking through the green channel...

I suspect Carol had a flight subsequent to her Icelandair flight, to get her to her actual home from where Iceland air delivered them. This is obviously a self connect, but if you leave sufficient time between them your Travel insurance will indeed cover the costs of rescheduling if you are delayed by a non trivial time.

@Carol: If my assumptions are right. what does your travel insurance consider a sufficient buffer between separate bookings for them to cover the costs of a delay?

I think Carol added another day, so instead of flying home the following day she added another day in Iceland.

There is immigration in Iceland as it is in Schengen.

Those who thought the $400 in change costs was for a separate ticket on a different airline after the completion of our Iceland Air flight were correct. My son and his wife had a ticket on Alaska from Seattle to Boise for their final leg home. We had travel insurance through Allianz and they reimbursed us for that cost without any difficulties in a prompt manner.

Sometimes, separate tickets are a reality that can’t be avoided.

That explains it.