Icelandair will offer flights to Akureyri in north Iceland from Keflavík International Airport up to four times a week and connecting flights to the airline’s various destinations in Europe and the US next summer, from June 7 to September 30.

View of Akureyri and Eyjafjördur. Photo by Geir Ólafsson.

With the move, Icelandair is hoping to strengthen the tourist industry in north Iceland and at the same time, increase the convenience for locals, a statement from the airline reads in Morgunbladid.

The destination can be booked as part of Icelandair’s flights to and from Iceland and so Akureyri will open up in booking systems all around the world. The airline will rent a Fokker 50 aircraft from Air Iceland for the Akureyri flights.

Mayor of Akureyri Eiríkur Björn Björgvinsson said he welcomes this addition to the local tourist industry but stresses that the addition will not reduce the importance of Reykjavík Airport for domestic and emergency flights.

Akureyri inhabitants have long been waiting for a new terminal building but no immediate improvements are scheduled. “It will have to wait due to the poor situation of the state treasury,” commented Minister of the Interior Ögmundur Jónasson.

It is estimated that Icelandair will boast 1.8 million passengers in 2011, which is a new record for the airline. The tourism marketing initiative Inspired by Iceland following the eruption in Eyjafjallajökull is considered to have been successful, Fréttabladid reports.

Iceland Express, Iceland’s other international airline, is also looking at an increase; bookings for September and October are 30 percent higher than at the same time last year.

Overall, it is expected that the number of foreign tourists in Iceland in 2011 will be 20 percent higher than in 2010. Now a tourism initiative marketing Iceland as a winter destination is in the pipeline.