560 thousand guests in April

The summer season is off to a good start, with a total of 556,047 guest passing through the airport in April. This is a 2% increase compared to the same time last year. The number of guests at Keflavík Airport (KEF) continue to grow, but it’s worth noting that Easter occurred in March this year, compared to April last year.

A total of 21 airlines flew to 65 destinations in April. The most popular destinations were London, Copenhagen, New York, Paris, and Amsterdam.

The busiest day at the airport in the month of April was on April 1st, when 25,020 guests passed through.

Departures of Icelanders totaled around 45,000 in April, according to the Icelandic Tourist Board. This is 19.8% fewer departures than in April of last year, but Easter, the most popular travel weekend for Icelanders, was in March this year, compared to April last year. Since the beginning of the year (January-April), about 180,000 Icelanders have traveled abroad, which is a 1.9% increase year-on-year.

Departures of foreign visitors totaled 137,000, which is 3.5% less than in April last year. Since the start of the year, around 593,000 foreign visitors have departed from Iceland, which is a 5.7% increase year-on-year. The majority of departures in April were Americans (24% of all total departures), followed by British (12%), Poles (6%), French (5%), and Germans (5%).

The numbers of guests are expected to increase in the coming months, with KEF’s passenger forecast predicting that over the summer months, from April to October, the number of guests will increase by 391,000, representing a 7.2% year-on-year growth.