Iceland Has Its First Direct Link to China, With a Catch

Air China began flying to Iceland on October 26, with a Beijing-Copenhagen-Reykjavik Keflavik service three times a week on Airbus A330-300s. Specialist coverage describes it as the first Asian carrier to schedule flights to Iceland. The catch is the routing: the aircraft stops in Copenhagen in both directions, so this is not the nonstop link the headline might suggest.

The Copenhagen-Keflavik sector, about 1,337 miles, is a fifth-freedom leg. Air China is selling it on its own with published local fares, which indicates it holds local traffic rights on that segment, so Scandinavians and Icelanders can use it without going to China. Filed times put the eastbound flight out of Beijing at 03:30, arriving in Keflavik at 11:15 local time, though schedules may change before operation.

The cabin, as cited by one specialist report, has about 30 flat-bed business seats in a 2-2-2 layout and 271 economy seats, although the subfleet configuration can vary. The service is paired with a commercial agreement: Icelandair and Air China have signed a codeshare covering Iceland-China connections on a single ticket, with bags checked through to the final destination.

For Chinese visitors, the flights shorten a trip that previously needed a connection in another European hub. For Icelanders, they open a route to Beijing and beyond. Reports note that Copenhagen’s non-Schengen stand use may lengthen passport control, so allow time on connections, and visa and entry rules are unaffected by which carrier operates the flight.

Sources: Deep Arrival, Aviation Week