Icelandair will commence flights between Heathrow and Seattle this July, with a four times-weekly service connecting in Reykjavik.
The route will start on July 22, with flights on Mondays, Wednesday, Fridays and Saturdays from London. Flight FI451 will depart London Heathrow at 1300, arriving into Reykjavik at 1500, where passengers will then have a two-hour connection onto flight FI681, departing at 1700 and arriving into Seattle-Tacoma airport at 1745. The return leg will depart Seattle at 1630 as FI680, arriving into Iceland at 0645 the next day, with a 55-minute connection onto flight FI450, landing back in London at 1145.
Icelandair will ply the route using Boeing 757 aircraft, configured with 183 seats in three classes (economy class, a recently-introduced economy comfort class, and Saga business class), and the carrier say its planes are fitted with “new leather-upholstered seats with state-of-the-art personalised entertainment systems”.
The route may well prove popular with those looking to mix business with pleasure, as the ticket allows stopovers in Reykjavik at no extra cost. BA is currently the only carrier flying nonstop from London to Seattle, after Northwest (now part of the merged Delta group) ceased its service in January (see online news November 10, 2008).
When Business Traveller checked online prices for flights departing London on Monday September 14, returning Thursday September 17, Icelandair was offering return business class flights (a product offering a seat pitch of 39 inches) for £2,242.90. This compared with a fully-flat business class offering with BA at £6,128.50.
For a recent review of BA’s Club World offering on the London-Seattle route, click here.
For more information visit icelandair.co.uk, ba.com.
Report by Mark Caswell
