Advertisement:

Icelandair has an order for a Boeing 787, in fact it has for a while, so what is really going on here?

Icelandair is the flag carrier of Iceland, with the airline being in operation since 1937. The airline has a fleet of 35, with 14 aircraft on order. All 49 of these aircraft are manufactured by Boeing. Icelandair has focused its marketing on “the stopover” since the 1960s. The stopover is what sets the airline apart from all of the others flying across the Atlantic. By operating all flights to and from Iceland, passengers have to change in Iceland. While changing aircraft, the airline will allow you to stop over in Iceland for 1-3 days at no extra cost. More than enough time to visit the blue lagoon.

B787 Order History

Back in February 2005 Icelandair placed an order with Boeing for 787 aircraft. The airline originally ordered 2 B787-800 aircraft then another 2. However, since then it has sold the rights for 3 of the aircraft to budget carrier Norwegian. This means that the airline has been awaiting the delivery of its last remaining B787 for 12 years. Since British Airways has received 10 of the 12 B787-800 aircraft it ordered in the year after Icelandair’s order, it is likely that delivering the one B787 isn’t a particularly high priority.

What Will Icelandair do with a B787?

It’s unlikely that Icelandair will operate one B787 by themselves. There are costs associated with starting to operate a new aircraft type. Namely, all of the staff working on that aircraft will need to become rated on the aircraft.

With this in mind, the airline could lease the aircraft to another carrier. One possible lessee could be Air Niugini. Loftleidir Icelandic, which is the leasing and trading company of Icelandair Group, currently leases a number of other aircraft to Air Niugini.

However, when Icelandair first placed its B787 order, Boeing released the following statement:

Advertisement:

European carrier Icelandair ordered two Boeing 787 Dreamliners, making it the 16th airline to select the all-new airplane since its launch in April 2004. Icelandair, a member of the Flugleidir Icelandair Group, will use the 787 to expand its operations on long-range routes from Iceland. The order is valued at 240 million at list prices, with deliveries beginning in 2010.

In fact, the manufacturer didn’t deliver its first B787 until a year later in 2011. It seems like Icelandair has lost interest in the B787, seeing as they sold 3 of their orders. This could partly be driven by the recent losses sustained by the company. However, they could still use this aircraft. They could test the feasibility of such an aircraft before potentially ordering or leasing some more.

While it seems that operating the B787 is no longer a core part of Icelandair’s business plan, it could still prove useful to the company in some way or another.