Icelandair

Icelandair Introduction

Icelandair aims to be the preferred airline to and from Iceland and an attractive choice for North Atlantic travel, committed to providing safe and reliable air travel and unique services. Icelandair currently serves 28 gateways in Europe, the USA and Canada.

The company has transformed Iceland’s geographical location between North America and Europe into a business opportunity by building an international route network with Iceland as a hub.

Icelandair divides its marketing activities into three main categories: Travel FROM Iceland, travel TO Iceland and travel VIA Iceland – i.e., flights between Europe and North America with a stopover in Iceland. By linking these three markets using the same Boeing 757 aircraft and the same route network the company has succeeded in sustaining and strengthening this business over a long period of time.

What Icelandair’s international expansion has accomplished for Icelanders, apart from an increase in the number of tourists and the business activities that have developed around the tourist industry throughout the country, is a system of outstanding flight services between Iceland and other countries.

Icelandair is a part of Icelandair Group

Icelandair Management

Birkir Hólm Guðnason CEO
Birkir finished his BSc. degree in Business Economics and Administration in 1998 at Aalborg University, Denmark and MBA in International Business and Economics from same University in 2000 and has since then worked for Icelandair. First as Sales Manager in Iceland, then as Sales Manager in North America, then as General Manager for Central Europe, situated in Frankfurt and from 2006 as General Manager for Scandinavia, situated in Copenhagen.
 
Andri Áss Grétarsson Senior Vice President of Operations
Andri Grétarsson joined Icelandair Group in 1998, first in Management and Financial Information department and then he worked in the Strategic and Finance division at Icelandair Group. He was appointed Senior Vice President of Finance and Resource Management at Icelandair in April 2006. In November 2008 he took position as SVP of Operations. He holds a Cand.Oceon degree from the University of Iceland and specialized in accounting.
 
Helgi Már Bjorgvinsson Senior Vice President of Marketing & Sales
Helgi Már was appointed SVP of Marketing & Sales in May 2008. He joined Icelandair in 1999 as Manager Icelandair Holidays USA, later to become Sales Manager Western Region. In 2002 he moved to London to become Sales and Marketing Manager UK & Ireland and in 2004 to Paris to assume the position of General Manager Southern Europe. Helgi became General Manager of UK & Ireland in May 2007. He graduated from the University of South Carolina, Columbia in 1994 with BS degree in Marketing and Management and holds a MBA from ESCP-EAP European School of Management in Paris.
 
Hlynur Elísson, Senior Vice President of Finance and Adminstration
Hlynur started his career within Icelandair Group at Icelandair Domestic in 1995 as Director of Finance and then Air Iceland in 1997. He was appointed Icelandair Senior Vice President of Finance and Resource Management on April 1st 2005. In March 2006 he became Icelandair Group’s Chief Financial Officer. In November 2008 Hlynur was appointed SVP Finance and Administration at Icelandair. Hlynur has a B.Sc. in Business from Rockford College, Illinois.

Operational chart, Icelandair

Icelandair Route Network

The Icelandair business strategy is based on the geographical position of Iceland on the flight route between northern Europe and the eastern shore of the USA/Canada. By combining in its aircraft, passengers visiting Iceland, passengers departing from Iceland and passengers traveling across the Atlantic via Iceland, Icelandair has been able to expand its network steadily over the past decades. Icelandair connects 15-20 European cities to 5-8 North American cities through the hub in Iceland.  The network is based on a 24hour rotation with morning and afternoon connections in Iceland.