Reykjavik to Cleveland: The niche flight route now served by two airlines

Two carriers are offering services on this unlikely route from Iceland to the US

Icelandair is one of the airlines taking on the new route (PA)

Imagine living in a city whose unfortunate nickname is “The mistake on the lake”. That is what the people of Cleveland, Ohio must endure.

Like other Midwest cities, such as Cincinnati, Detroit and St Louis, Cleveland was once a rich, fast-growing manufacturing hub. But the city on the southern shore of Lake Erie has been left behind by the 21st century.

A century ago, Cleveland was the fifth-largest US city, with a population racing towards one milllion; today, with fewer than 400,000 inhabitants, it doesn’t even make the top 50. And that heIps to explain why Cleveland has no direct connections with Europe.

For a time Continental Airlines used Cleveland as a hub, and even had a daily link to and from London. But since Continental merged with United, Cleveland has watched other cities taking all the glory.

From May, though, Cleveland is set to get two competing links with the same overseas city.

Paris? Amsterdam? Frankfurt? No: Reykjavik.

Cleveland-Reykjavik makes an instant appearance on the list of weird flights you never thought you would see, alongside Doncaster to Cluj-Napoca in Romania (Wizz Air) and Barcelona to Kaliningrad in Russia (Vueling). But the route also demands an entirely new category: head-to-head airline wars you never thought you would see.

From May 2018, the departure screens at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport will show competing links to Keflavik airport in south-west Iceland: Wow Air taking on the flag carrier, Icelandair.

Now, if you have spent much time in Cleveland, you will understand the appeal of almost anywhere else on the planet. In my experience the closest location that qualifies for a great escape from Cleveland is Cedar Point, 60 miles along the lakeshore. It is the self-styled Roller Coaster Capital of the World, and the arrival next year of a new ride, Steel Vengeance, will add to the appeal. “Speed: 74mph; First Drop: 200 feet; Inversions: 4” goes the pre-publicity.

The flight to Iceland will not be so thrilling, but it offers the prospect of amazing volcanic landscapes in a sub-Arctic island, and, later in the year, possible sightings of the Northern Lights.

Even so, the total demand from Ohio citizens desperate to get to Reykjavik (and Icelandic theme-park fans heading in the opposite direction) is unlikely to sustain two competing airlines on a six hours-plus route.

In earlier times, news of two airlines slugging it out on a city pair like that would trigger derision and the prospect of another fares bloodbath. Surely the only winner will be the passengers who take advantage of the plummeting prices before one or possibly both airlines abandons the route?

Doubtless, both Icelandair and Wow Air will offer some aggressively low fares. But it may be that there is room for both carriers. Each will feed an extensive and growing European network, with connections to a range of cities in countries from Russia to Switzerland.


 When in Cleveland, head to Cedar Point amusement park (Getty)
 (Getty Images)

Reykjavik offers a far smoother and more comfortable connection than using one of the US East Coast airports, and flying times are better than backtracking via Chicago or deviating to Atlanta. So it may be that the losers are the network carriers – American, Delta, United – who connect Cleveland via their hubs.

Wow Air and Icelandair are following the same basic strategy: picking unserved or under-served US cities and providing them with dozens of destinations in Europe with one simple connection. They diverge in aircraft used. Icelandair continues with its successful formula of well-maintained fleet of Boeing 757s, which are old and thirsty but paid for. Wow has opted for the Airbus A321, which began life decades ago as a little-noticed stretch of the A320 but has now been recognised as an extremely efficient medium-haul workhorse.

The more the pair of rivals expand in America, the more demand they can stimulate for their European operations. Which is why Wow is offering those three other Midwest cities I mentioned — Detroit, Cincinnati and St Louis – while Icelandair is adding Tampa-St Petersburg on Florida’s Gulf Coast. Citizens of St Petersburg, Russia, will soon have a high-speed connection to their city’s sunnier namesake.

Aviation history tells us that the network carriers will respond with tempting deals, and that other players – such as Norwegian, and BA’s sister airline, Level, may intervene with new non-stop routes between Europe and unserved American cities. But experience also tells us that choice and competition is always good for travellers. Even if Cleveland doesn’t feature in your immediate travel plans, the Icelandic disruptors will bring benefits for all transatlantic passengers.