Icelandic Airlines - short layover

We flew to France on Icelandair this past June. The Iceland airport is tiny! We had no problem at all making our connection. You will be totally fine. Have a great trip!

Less than 1 hour is normal for connections at Keflavik. My flight on Iceland Air a couple of years ago had a 40 min scheduled layover, the plane from DEN was late and we ended up with 20 mins - made the plane change with time to spare.

As I remember, Icelandic Airlines still flies 757s - a plane with only one isle. Not enough for me on that long of a flight. But, their prices certainly are competitive.

I was worried about that last year when I flew from Frankfurt to California and back to Frankfurt using Iceland Air and only had 40 min. between flights. Asking the forum here and also the Destination Experts for Iceland over on Trip Advisor, I received many assurances that this was enough time. I also went to Youtube to find films of the interior of the airport to see what it looked like.

It was plenty of time. We just walked off the plane, and went and got on the next plane and took off. Returning, we had a bit of a line going through passport control, but I still had time to go get a hot chocolate before my next flight. This layover was 50 min.

As to the comfort on the plane, I found the seats comfy, the entertainment system was great (bring your own head phones though as they aren't free on Iceland Air) and I brought lots of goodies to eat, as their meals aren't free either. The scenery is fabulous on this flight. Well worth taking photos out of the windows. I chose my seats so that I would always be looking north for the best views. Glaciers, icebergs, mountains, forests!

What's especially nice is that you can stay a day or two on the layover and continue on to Europe without additional charges. It's quite a place, with a very good night life and very beautiful people.

As stated, the airport is tiny and they are pretty quick about things like security etc. It would be one airport where even I (Joe Paranoid unless I have a 2.5 hr international layover) would be comfortable with an hour. That being said, increasing the layover a day or two to see a bit of Iceland is worth it.

Hi Steve,

I have flown through Keflavik several times in the past three years and have had no connection trouble at all. In fact, next spring I am planning a trip where my wife and children will be joining me later in the journey. We are using Keflavik because we want to use the stopover privilege with Icelandair on the way back. My wife has never connected in Europe by herself. I have no problem with them coming on their own because of how easy it is to get through Keflavik. Nice airport with all the amenities.

Best thing about Keflavik... it's quiet. None of those annoyingly loud PA announcements. No three "final calls" for passengers who can't get to their gates on time. No "white courtesy telephone" announcements. No gate change announcements. There are plenty of screens announcing flights, gates, and the time. Plenty of signs in Icelandic and English for direction. If you can't watch the clock and know where you need to be and when, too bad. It was the most peaceful airport I've ever been in.

I remember two things about Keflavik airport, granted this was from the 70's. We arrived, I was going to stay couple of days, i got off the plane on the Tarmac, walked to the terminal, walked through the terminal which was basically a room to a door that looked like your basic fire door exit and I was standing in the parking lot.

Then on flight back the plane was having engine troubles so at like 2 AM we landed, they had us all deplane, the terminal was closed and dark, they opened it for us and we sat on the floor passing around the bottles of booze that everyone was bringing home in their carry-ons.

*Best thing about Keflavik... it's quiet. None of those annoyingly loud PA announcements. No three "final calls" for passengers who can't get to their gates on time. No "white courtesy telephone" announcements. No gate change announcements. *

On the other hand, the worst thing about KEF is that there are no announcements at the gate and very few seats in the gate area. On my last flight, a couple hundred people were at the gate per the info posted on the departure board. For over an hour everyone stood in a rather confined area expecting to board imminently, but wondering we weren't moving. The board never indicated any delay. There was absolutely no announcement until we were actually seated on the plane as to why we were delayed boarding.