Iceland’s International Airport Tries to Become a Destination of Its Own
Photo Credit: The Icelandair tail seen outside the Keflavik International Airport. Flickr / Keflavik International Airport
Skift Take
It's been said that airports are the doorways to a destination and that's nowhere more true than in Iceland where the number of first-time visitors and transfer passengers are skyrocketing, giving the airport the opportunity to welcome and woo tourists.
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Iceland's Keflavik International Airport is undergoing a transformation from a once underused transfer hub to a global stopover that shares local culture even with passengers just changing flights.
Keflavik made headlines in 2010 when the Eyjafjallajökull volcano erupted causing major disruptions to air travel across Europe for one week. The airport, surprisingly, ran with little trouble during the eruption and traffic has been on the rise ever since.
In fact, air traffic is on pace to double over the past decade. Passenger departures increased from 600,369 flyers in 2004 to 1,005,122, flyers in 2012, according to Statistics Iceland.
“We used to want the airport to have a global feel. Now we want
