> renamed | ^ merged in | => merged to form airline | +> or + assets taken | < divided |
Loftleiðir was formed on 10/Mar/1944 and the first revenue flight (from Reykjavík to Ísafjörður) took place on 06Apr1944. On 17/Jun/1947 the company started its first international route between Reykjavik and Copenhagen
[ – Flugfélag Akureyri was founded in 1937 and started operations in 1938. The company moved to Reykjavík, where it acquired another Waco aircraft and was re-launched in 1940 as Flugfélag Íslands. When international routes were started after WWII, the airline traded as Iceland Airways, and from 1957 as Icelandair. In 1973, Icelandair and the other Icelandic international airline, Loftleiðir – Icelandic Airlines, joined forces through a holding company, Flugleiðir. The two airlines operated alongside, until they were finally completely merged as Flugleiðir in 1979. Internationally, the new airline retained the name Icelandair for promotional reasons. When Loftleiðir pulled out of the domestic market in 1952 to fully concentrate on international flights, Flugfélag became the main domestic carrier of the country. In the 1950s, Flugfélag began to use the ‘Icelandair’ branding for its international flights. In 1973 a holding company called Flugleiðir was created, which combined the two companies and began to streamline staff and operations.[31] At the time of the merger, two thirds of the passenger traffic of the airline were international transatlantic crossings. In 1979, Flugfélag bought all of Loftleiðir’s assets in Flugleiðir, and the airline was renamed Icelandair. Icelandair integrated its operations with smaller sunsidiary Air Iceland Connect on 16Mar2021
< international and regional passenger and cargo airline from its hub at Keflavík International Airport. Icelandair is the flag carrier airline of Iceland > ]
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