Iceland

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Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 2,491

On Tuesday, I took a day trip to Iceland. A kind of belated birthday present, but worth it!

The flights were direct from the Isle of Man to Kelfavik, which was nice.

25/02/2003
IOM-KEF
B737-700
G-STRD
Astraeus Airlines

I use IOM a lot, especially in the mornings. We had a 7AM departure, which worried me a but. The airport gets congested between 6 and 7, as something like 4 or 5 flights leave within the space of 20 minutes (a lot for a small airport). So, we decided to follow the advice given by Thomas Cook - check in for 5.30AM.

That meant a 4.30AM start, groggy drive and turning up at the airport for 5.45AM. Oh dear...no check in desks open. They open at 6AM sharp, with no exceptions for a day when the passenger throughput for that hour is doubled! There was a queue of about 130 passengers (it was a fairly full flight) and one check-in agent. And the flight left in an hour! Eventually they wised up and BA lent Astraeus another agent.

Checked in and went upstairs to clear security. Oh dear again! A really big queue, must have been about 200 passengers waiting to go to the departure lounge. Only one x-ray machine and one archway. Superb planning guys! The PA system kept making nervous announcements "will the last 12 passengers for BAxxx to Liverpool please make their way to the gate where the aircraft is ready to depart". How??? These passengers arrived in good time and checked in early, mostly. But the management at the airport screwed up and now BA was ignoring this and pretending it was the passengers' fault. They are such a popular airline in the Isle of Man!

Anyway, once through all that farce, we boarded our 737-700 and took our seats. I was in a full row or 3, but the row infront was empty so I changed seats to get more personal space. Seats were fine. Legroom wasn't great, but I didn't mind that because I felt the price justified that. What did concern me though, was that there was an extra row of seats by the enmergency exits. Normally this is the good-legroom row, because access is needed to the exit in case of emergency. That Astraeus decided it wasn't important, bothered me a lot.

No TV screens, which I thought were standard fit on new aircraft. On all my previous 737NG flights, there have been drop-down LCD screens every few rows.

Anyway, we took off over the Irish Sea at a brisk pace, and disappeared into the clouds and fog. A very uneventful 2 hours 5 mins left, we landed at Keflavik airport. In between, the meal was perfectly good. However, a black mark for the fact that the butter was too hard - unspreadable. Why do airlines do this???!!!

Also, you had to pay for drinks. Again, the price was good so I wasn't too upset. It's just that on a short BA flight costing 4 times less, they are complimentary. Astraeus need to think about that, especially as BA still manage to make not too bad profits.

KEF was empty! There was an unmarked 737 next to us, which I think was for the new airline Iceland Express. Icelandair Cargo had a 757-200PF there, and Volga Dnepr had an AN-124 parked remotely.

Disembarked into a very nice airport - no complaints about KEF whatsoever, apart from the annoying fact that the only coffee available was from a machine! A restaurant area was closed off, so maybe they served coffee there - but not in the coffee shop/bar and there were no Starbucks/Costa/ETC concessions.

Small point I suppose.

On the return leg, we were the last flight off the Island at 6PM. Before us, Icelandair had 757's departing to BWI, BOS and MCO all in the space of 30 mins and a further few 757-200's were parked at the gate presumably for morning flights the next day.

Flight back was longer than inbound slightly, 2 hours 15 mins. Not bad for that sort of range I don't suppose. Had the same seat, same cabin crew and obviously same aircraft and pilots. We had to be de-iced prior to take-off but no major dramas. Quite a bumpy landing back at IOM, which I didn't mind. After all, the runway was fairly short (1,753m) and it was dark, and also I would imagine fairly unfamiliar territory for the pilots.

When in Iceland, we had lunch in downtown Reykjavik and I was very startled (I ducked!) when a Fokker 50 flew over the centre of town to land at the city airpoty, RKV. Like a mini Kai-Tak!

The restaurant at Perla (a water storage facility with a revolving glass dome on top) had great views of RKV and you were level with departing aircraft. Not much activity though - a Metro and a few F50's on the apron, a F50 landed and a Dornier 228 took off in the space of 30 mins at lunch time.

Okay, crunch time:

Astraeus Airlines - 8/10. Would be 9, but drinks/snacks had to be paid for and the placing of seats in the emergency exit areas.

Original post

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 6,503

Great review Mongu, glad you enjoyed your trip!

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 3,672

yep sounds good - i think you were upgraded from the B733 to B737 due one of the Astreus a/c (G-STRB) is operation on behalf of Iceland Express!!!

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 2,491

Now how's that for irony!

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 1,940

I know what you mean about low flying Fokkers near Reykjavik airport. I used to have regular holidays in Iceland and remember once walking along a path near the end of the Reykjavik airport runway when a Fokker F27 flew over my head, literally seconds from landing with its landing gear down. I used to regularly walk near the Perlan restaurant and have had several fun domestic flights on Icelandair's Fokker 27s and 50s from Reykjavik airport. It's a pity that the country became so commercialised and touristy, I went for the first time in 1983 and there wasn't even a car park in the geyser area, let alone a restaurant and hotel. Iceland has been altered and not for the better.

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 4,333

I agree . However Iceland remains a beautiful country and people there are lovely.

And swimming in the natural hot spring is unique.