Icelandair goes the extra mile

Icelandair launches a new, free stopover service for passengers traveling across the Atlantic.

The initiative encourages passengers to explore Iceland through a stopover experience with the airline staff, their ‘stopover buddies’, who will act as local hosts in specific areas of interest ranging from nature to adventure and from food to lifestyle. 

Since the 1960s, the transatlantic airline has encouraged passengers to enjoy a stopover but now offers the service from 26 European destinations to 16 North American cities. Travellers can now stay in Iceland for up to seven nights without additional airfare, and are encouraged to reserve up to one day with a stopover buddy.  

Members of the transatlantic airline team - stewardesses, pilots and even the CEO of Icelandair - will offer a glimpse into the ‘real’ Iceland upon landing. The service runs under reservation via website and is entirely free. Booking started on the 2nd of February and runs until the 30th of April this year. Hosts include the CEO, Birkir Hólm Gudnason, who will take guests off-piste skiing, captain, Sigrún Björg Ingvadóttir, who is a 'health buddy' and will take guests mountain biking and cabin crew, Páll Magnús Gudjónsson,  who will take guests taste-testing the Southern coast.

In collaboration with creative agencies, The Brooklyn Brothers and Islenska, the initiative has already be launched internally with the recruitment of 30 buddies and the implementation of a new measurement system for tracking success.

George Bryant, founding partner and executive creative director at The Brooklyn Brothers, says “As part of the global launch, we conducted an international survey where we discovered that holidaymakers have a growing desire to holiday like a local. This insight then became our stimulus for Stopover Buddy, an innovative idea where people actually get to enjoy Iceland like a local, helping save our passengers both money time.”