It looks like Southwest Airlines is going to start flying to Iceland.
- They’ve partnered with Icelandair, and could sell seats on their own planes to Reykjavik, connecting passengers onto Icelandair flights into Europe.
- They can reach Iceland from a stronghold like Baltimore using their current Boeing 737 MAXs. These would not be a great passenger experience with no ovens in the galley, no first class, no seat back entertainment and inferior wifi. But it’s a similar distance to West Coast – Hawaii where passengers put up with the inflight product today.
This would allow Southwest’s passengers to redeem their points to Europe, also, which should help the co-brand credit card business. Money from card partner Chase was a big impetus for Hawaii flying as well.
Southwest CEO Bob Jordan said he wants to fly transatlantic from Nashville, too. And he’s talking up sprucing up the experience and offering a lounge, too.
Nashville loves us, and we know we have Nashville customers that want lounges. They want first class. They want to get to Europe and they’re going to Europe…I want to send fewer and fewer customers to another airline.
Iceland is a strong seasonal (summer) destination but also an efficient connection point for the rest of Europe. Southwest needs to pick cities where they’re strong, and that lack significant non-stop flights across the Pond – otherwise they’ll be at a huge disadvantage since their Europe offerings will be at a disadvantage having to connect in Iceland (and with a product that’s inferior to competitors). They’d be chasing the lowest yield revenue, and doing it in the off-season as well. Even with a fuel-efficient narrowbody aircraft that’s a recipe for losing money.
As Enilria points out on significant limitation of Southwest is that they’ve been unable to sell tickets in foreign currency, which means they’re limited to U.S. point of sale (“they are 100 years behind Pan Am on being able to accept foreign currencies”).
That didn’t work when they triend flying to Canada, but they can do alright selling Mexico vacation travel to Americans. Limiting themselves to traffic from the U.S. would harm their operation even further, although this could be the impetus that finally forces them to overcome the challenge.
Southwest CEO Bob Jordan no longer commits to everything, having publicly promised this past fall that the airline would never charge for checked bags before being overruled by the new board installed by Elliott Management. So he also talks about possibly buying widebody aircraft in the future. Whatever the board tells him to do, I guess.
Show of hands please who is excited about flying a connecting flight via Iceland on a Southwest plane to get to Europe. Anyone? Hello?
I mean, I guess Iceland’s technically ‘Europe.’
@Jonathan — That’s a dope for me, dawg.
But can you combine the $500 southwest credit from the CSR for spending seventy-five thousand dollars with Points Boost!?
Speaking of PanAm and 100 years ago, at this point, why doesn’t Southwest simply use Gander as a refueling spot instead of connecting through Iceland? I’m sure that would be the premium experience that folks who spend $75k with Chase are clamoring for.
JetBlue is barely making Europe work with a real business class product and a good economy experience. Southwest has no chance – why connect through Iceland and not fly, I don’t know, literally any other carrier? It’s creative when Icelandair tries to do it I suppose (as many ‘stopover’ programs are). But these Southwest announcements just reek of desperation.
I think the answer to Jonathan’s question is, the same kind of people who use Iceland Air to connect to Europe already – people who don’t travel to Europe often, don’t care about comfort or convenience, and just book on price. So it might work for WN’s customers.
I flew Icelandair from the continental U.S. to Keflavik then onwards to Heathrow. It wasn’t bad because the arrival was a little later in the morning, which is better for hotel check-in. A non-stop from the continental U.S. to London might arrive at 7 am, way too early to check into the hotel.
On the reverse, I did a stopover in Iceland. A supermarket cashier said the total amount in English and did not even try to say the numbers in Icelandic. I responded with a Halló in Icelandic.
I would rather play truck tag than fly WN to Europe.
Hawaii flopped for SWA big time…..Have to wonder if this won’t be the same.
Oreo cookies and a big of pretzels attract a certain crowd. Not my thing and probably never will be.
Interesting, but how is SWA going to route enough “premium” connecting passengers to BNA for the “all-you-can-eat pretzels” overnight flight to KEF? The Nashville market alone can’t support 90% load factors at a decent margin for a daily 737 MAX service to Iceland year-round (regardless if connecting on FI to mainland Europe or not)…
Southwest to Europe? I don’t think so.
it is patently false that WN is incapable of selling tickets in foreign currencies. They switched to Amadeus years ago and can sell anything that Amadeus supports.
WN has done a poor job of marketing itself outside of the US and compounded that with the requirement to buy tickets only on southwest’s site.
That also no longer is the case.
WN has deep pockets and can buy their way into whatever market they want. They need to rethink alot but they certainly are capable of transforming themselves more than B6 or any of the ULCCs.
WN uses Amadeus’ passenger service software. Amadeus has airline clients the world over. I call BS on the currency situation unless WN cheaped out on the options they use from Amadeus. Even so, it should be easy enough for Amadeus to configure this for a huge client like WN.
@Tim Dunn – show me where southwest.com accepts payment in euros or currencies other than dollars?
europeans can go to delta’s website to buy tickets, but not to southwest’s.
the fact that an agency can now sell southwest’s tickets is beside the point. this is an issue to overcome before launching international. can it be done? sure. they haven’t done it yet.
Gary,
WN has no technical limitations on accepting foreign currencies; the fact that they don’t doesn’t mean they can’t.
When they ran on BN’s old system, they could not accept foreign currencies but that era has passed.
WN has alot of obstacles to overcome to grow into international markets but being able to sell in other currencies is not one of them.
and I still believe, and have said so, that the current round of product restructuring for WN is just the first step.
and those people that sneer at WN’s customer base haven’t flown much on other US airlines.
Let’s also remember that DL’s march to get a revenue premium took place over about a five to seven year period following its emergence from chapter 11. by the mid 2010s, DL was generating revenue premiums to the industry. UA’s turnaround was just as fast. Not saying that WN can transform itself that fast but it isn’t without precedent in the industry.
Does Iceland have alternate airports near Reykjavik in case one is needed in an emergency?
There are two airports in Iceland and another in Greenland for alternates.
Gary – Even a major airline like Air Canada cannot accept USD when you make an award booking, you have to pay in CAD.
From the US site you get this lovely message:
Attention
You will be redirected to the Canadian edition of aircanada(dot)com as no local website edition is available for Aeroplan flight bookings based on the country/region of residence you selected.
If you choose to complete a booking:
Your ticket will be issued and billed in Aeroplan points and Canadian dollars.
A foreign merchant transaction fee may be charged by your credit card issuing bank at time of billing.