Icelandair to open St. Louis route: new gateway to Europe

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Icelandair is adding America's "Gateway to the West," St. Louis, to its U.S. map.

The carrier will offer three- to four-times weekly flights from Keflavik International Airport (KEF) near Iceland's capital of Reykjavík to St. Louis Lambert International Airport (STL). Service will run from May 14, 2027 through Oct. 24, 2027, Icelandair said Wednesday, with flights operating on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays.

Icelandair will fly a Boeing 737 MAX 8 with 16 business-class recliner seats and 144 economy seats to STL.

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The new route will connect with Icelandair partner Southwest Airlines and offer both airlines' fliers a new transfer point for trips between the U.S. and Europe. Southwest is the busiest carrier at STL.

"St. Louis is an exciting addition, further strengthened by our growing partnership with Southwest Airlines, which will create convenient connections between destinations across North America, Iceland, and Europe," Tómas Ingason, the chief commercial officer of Icelandair, said in a statement.

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STL is Icelandair's 16th U.S. gateway and its first new destination on this side of the Atlantic for 2027. The airline will fly 15% more seats to U.S. this year than it did in 2019, schedule data from aviation analytics firm Cirium shows.

Icelandair is STL's third European carrier after British Airways and Lufthansa , both of which began flights to the Midwestern city in the years following the pandemic.

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However, the new service is not STL's first to KEF. Former long-haul, low-cost budget carrier WOW Air briefly flew the route in 2018 and 2019 before ending the service amid broader problems at the now-defunct carrier.

Travelers on Icelandair's new STL route can take advantage of the airline's free stopover program for an up to seven-day stay in Iceland.

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