The Rise of Iceland [Network Beat #9]

We head to Iceland this week in the Network Beat bonus segment of the Airways Podcast, where Creator and Co-Founders Vinay Bhaskara and Rohan Anand dissect the Whos, Whats and WOWs of Islandia.  We start by delving into the strategic importance of Rekjavic's Keflavik International airport (1:30), paying close attention to the capacity breakdown at KEF and its unique connecting model as a transit and stoppover point between Europe and North America. We'll then discuss Icelandair (6:40), the largest carrier at KEF airport with over 50% of the market share, its innovative and FREE "stoppover program," and the future of its network and commercial strategy with the 737-MAX entering the fleet later this decade to replace its workhorse 757s. We compare this to WOW Air (11:55), comparing the use of larger, widebody and Airbus-exclusive fleet. The remainder of the episode, we'll do some additional compare and contrasts on the successes, threats and opportunities for Icelandair and WOW, and how these two will vie for similar types of traffic flows but with one utilizing a hybrid model and the other as a fully un-bundled LCC.