Anna.aero announced for this week that KEF-HKG was the underserved route of the week.

http://www.anna.aero/2017/01/25/reykjav ... -searches/

Your thoughts? I found this quite surprising as I wouldn't expect there to be any business ties at all between Hong Kong and Iceland neither much tourism.

A bit off topic - but I wonder how well would a TK service between IST & KEF work in terms of transfers to Asia...

Am I missing the joke here? A country of about 320,000 people needs service to the other side of the globe? I think they would be lucky to get service to Dubai or LAX to get halfway.

Reno has a bigger population, and may have more traffic to Hong Kong. No one is expecting direct service any time soon.

aklrno wrote:

A country of about 320,000 people needs service to the other side of the globe? I think they would be lucky to get service to Dubai or LAX to get halfway.

It's the fish population that you have not included

Tourism is booming in Iceland but hard to imagine any direct service from East-Asia, charters perhaps?

According to the article HEL (26%) is the number one connection point between KEF and HKG, before FRA (22%). Finnair is starting KEF in April with their own metal, this new service works well for the Chinese (and other Asian) visitors, who now have discovered the Nordic Europe.

Speaking of Reno, would a Kef-rno route be more likely than Kef-Rno? I think it has a better chance than Hkg-Kef, not that I see Rno-kef as real likely.

aklrno wrote:

Am I missing the joke here? A country of about 320,000 people needs service to the other side of the globe? I think they would be lucky to get service to Dubai or LAX to get halfway.

Reno has a bigger population, and may have more traffic to Hong Kong. No one is expecting direct service any time soon.

KEF already has service to LAX and SFO (WOW Air) and PDX, DEN, ORD, MSP and others with Iceland Air.

All of ANNA's Unserved Routes of the Week are ridiculous. And if you look at the numbers, you can understand why.

230,000 annual searches = 630 searches per day. Figure even a generously optimistic 20% sales conversion rate, and you're at a 63 passengers daily each way market.

These analyses by OAG are a lot more valuable. I believe they were discussed here at the time:
https://www.oag.com/underserved-uncovered
https://www.oag.com/underserved-uncovered-us-edition

I don't understand the obsession with KEF. I swear just about every fan boy in the US would sell their soul to get a flight from their city to Iceland.

simairlinenet wrote:

All of ANNA's Unserved Routes of the Week are ridiculous.

I keep waiting for Mare, New Caledonia to Perm, Russia to show up as an unserved route of the week.

Iceland is very popular with Asian tourists, in fact I'm pretty sure there are a couple of 777 charters planned between Japan and KEF soon. If you haven't been you are really missing out. I'm hoping to go back for visit No. 4 soon.

lavalampluva wrote:

I don't understand the obsession with KEF. I swear just about every fan boy in the US would sell their soul to get a flight from their city to Iceland.

Visit Iceland and you will know. Truly stunning scenery! Besides that it offers many convenient connections between the US and EU, so by having a flight to KEF you will have access to all those connections.

More likely to gat a flight to DXB (or insert other Middle East transfer hub) than HKG. I don't see KEF getting regular service to anywhere further east at this point in time.

Routes such as AY's HEL-KEF, which starts in April, are directly targeting Asian tourism to Iceland.
The route hasn't even started and has already been increased to be year-round and up to 5 weekly in the summer months.

Last I was in Iceland there were many tourist of Chinese origin. Later I discovered most of them were from Hong Kong. It is really a surprising number, especially in winter time

Aw man, it's been so long since I last took any drugs.

lavalampluva wrote:

I don't understand the obsession with KEF. I swear just about every fan boy in the US would sell their soul to get a flight from their city to Iceland.

It is the most beautiful place I have ever been. I hope it continues to grow in popularity for tourism.

Asians are the fastest growing group of tourists in Iceland. There are a lot of visitors from China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, etc. There would be no problem filling a 777 between HKG and KEF a few times per week. The question is if the yields would be worth it.

opticalilyushin wrote:

Iceland is very popular with Asian tourists, in fact I'm pretty sure there are a couple of 777 charters planned between Japan and KEF soon. If you haven't been you are really missing out. I'm hoping to go back for visit No. 4 soon.

There have been direct 777 charters from Japan in every autumn now for some years.

asuflyer wrote:

Routes such as AY's HEL-KEF, which starts in April, are directly targeting Asian tourism to Iceland.
The route hasn't even started and has already been increased to be year-round and up to 5 weekly in the summer months.

FI codeshares with AY on the KEF-HEL route and has done so for a long time and I know that has been a popular way to get to Iceland from east Asia. It's telling about the popularity of this routing that AY is adding its own metal to it as well.

simairlinenet wrote:

All of ANNA's Unserved Routes of the Week are ridiculous. And if you look at the numbers, you can understand why.

230,000 annual searches = 630 searches per day. Figure even a generously optimistic 20% sales conversion rate, and you're at a 63 passengers daily each way market.

These analyses by OAG are a lot more valuable. I believe they were discussed here at the time:
https://www.oag.com/underserved-uncovered
https://www.oag.com/underserved-uncovered-us-edition

The article say the sales conversion rate on the route is 3.8%. They think if direct service is to be provided then the conversion rate could be up to the average direct service conversion rate, i.e. 4.1%. That mean they expect if direct service is provided on the route then there will have about 181 travelers per week booking a flight on the route via their site, increase from the current figure of 168 travelers per week.

aklrno wrote:

Am I missing the joke here? A country of about 320,000 people needs service to the other side of the globe? I think they would be lucky to get service to Dubai or LAX to get halfway.

I think you are missing something indeed. KEF is closer to HKG than LAX.

aircatalonia wrote:

aklrno wrote:

Am I missing the joke here? A country of about 320,000 people needs service to the other side of the globe? I think they would be lucky to get service to Dubai or LAX to get halfway.

I think you are missing something indeed. KEF is closer to HKG than LAX.

Uh no it's not, KEF-LAX is about 3700 nm vs about 5250 nm for KEF-HKG.

Finnair will make a mint connecting KEF with their Asian network. Far better and more direct than connecting via LHR.
The Japanese especially have a fascination for geology, northern lights and Nordic history - not to mention the fish cargo possibilities.

737max8 wrote:

It is the most beautiful place I have ever been. I hope it continues to grow in popularity for tourism.

It is the most beautiful place I have ever been. Therefore, I selfishly hope it does NOT continue to grow in popularity for tourism. The small island nation is already under stress from the extreme growth and it's diluting the experience. Horrible to come to all the peaceful nature and various sites only to be stuck in herds and herds of cattle tourists.

I've been to Iceland for many years in a row and the difference in tourist numbers between my first trip and the latest is mindboggling. It makes me carefully plan off-season travel times because it's somewhat unbearable.

mict wrote:

aircatalonia wrote:

aklrno wrote:

Am I missing the joke here? A country of about 320,000 people needs service to the other side of the globe? I think they would be lucky to get service to Dubai or LAX to get halfway.

I think you are missing something indeed. KEF is closer to HKG than LAX.

Uh no it's not, KEF-LAX is about 3700 nm vs about 5250 nm for KEF-HKG.

Except that that is not what aircatalonia wrote. He compared KEF-HKG to LAX-HKG. So, uh, yes, it is.

Those numbers are truly ridiculous. BTW, I have been to Iceland last year and I did not see a large number of asian tourists, I did saw many Americans, Germans, British and Canadian travelers.

While we are at it, how about Detroit to Mauritius?

TC957 wrote:

The Japanese especially have a fascination for geology, northern lights and Nordic history - not to mention the fish cargo possibilities.

Japanese discovered the Nordic Europe first, now the Chinese have arrived and they spend more money than any other nationality. I live next to a Holiday Inn which accommodates Chinese groups , they fly Finnair to Helsinki, stay a day or two and continue to Lapland, Copenhagen, Reykjavik. I often see them shopping in my local mall, must be welcome visitors there.

ChrisFallon77 wrote:

While we are at it, how about Detroit to Mauritius?

Why not, even small Helsinki has direct flights to Mauritius, Thomson 787/12h

HELyes wrote:

TC957 wrote:

ChrisFallon77 wrote:

While we are at it, how about Detroit to Mauritius?

Why not, even small Helsinki has direct flights to Mauritius, Thomson 787/12h

You must have never set foot in Detroit to compare it to Helsinki, air service is not about population size.

No single city in North America regardless of wealth can sustain service to MRU.

lavalampluva wrote:

I don't understand the obsession with KEF. I swear just about every fan boy in the US would sell their soul to get a flight from their city to Iceland.

It's not about KEF as a destination it's about the bite they take off the extremely high fares charged in some markets to Europe. It's about fare relief.

redadeco wrote:

HELyes wrote:

TC957 wrote:

Why not, even small Helsinki has direct flights to Mauritius, Thomson 787/12h

You must have never set foot in Detroit to compare it to Helsinki, air service is not about population size.

No single city in North America regardless of wealth can sustain service to MRU.

I'm pretty sure HELyes was being sarcastic!

While there are undoubtedly a huge boom in Asian tourists visiting Iceland, the fact that you can realistically connect HKG-xxx-KEF either on one ticket or seperate tickets in any of AMS, ARN, CDG, DUS, FRA, HEL, LGW, LHR, MAN, MUC and ZRH means that a non-stop is probably not about to happen in the near future. I could see similar charters to the ones we have from Japan though.

Never knew that Asian tourists visited Iceland, but to be honest Icelandair would never start flights to Asia. They don't have the proper fleet range to do it (they operate 757's and 767's).

We all joke about it but I bet there is a healthy cargo market from KEF to Asia with gourmet quality fish! Hong Kong, Japan and Korea are all heavy consumers of top quality seafood.

redadeco wrote:

HELyes wrote:

TC957 wrote:

Why not, even small Helsinki has direct flights to Mauritius, Thomson 787/12h

You must have never set foot in Detroit to compare it to Helsinki, air service is not about population size.

No single city in North America regardless of wealth can sustain service to MRU.

Sorry the bad joke.

I know travel markets in US and Europe are different, over here the scheduled charters like Thomson 787 HEL-MRU once every two weeks is a way to get your exotic (package) holiday with lower price. Yes MRU is still not cheap. As SRQKEF said above perhaps direct charter services to Iceland could work for Chinese too.

Wow wow everyone - let's take a deep breath here.

Look at the stats provided.

PEAK monthly SEARCHES on a meta site is 24,000

Even if that converted at 1% - ie 1 in 100 searchers booked (very high for Skyscanner) - that means 240 passengers each way per month.

Do we envisage a one-monthly CX A350?

This is just a PR piece for Skyscanner.

Wouldn't Beijing Capital Airlines or Hainan make more sense from PEK or PVG?

Or obviously TK or one ME3.

Maybe it would also be a good route for Aeroflot to connect in SVO.

aklrno wrote:

Am I missing the joke here? A country of about 320,000 people needs service to the other side of the globe? I think they would be lucky to get service to Dubai or LAX to get halfway.

Reno has a bigger population, and may have more traffic to Hong Kong. No one is expecting direct service any time soon.

The Icelandic LCC WW operates to LAX from KEF.

The underlying data for this claim is a bit fuzzy to say the least.

With a simple commercial testing IP spoofer and a simple script you could do a truckload of unique flight searches for some obscure city pair and it would likely come up in a similar fashion. This is a PR piece.

Which will come last for CX

HKG HNL
HKG MIA
HKG DME
HKG LIS
HKG DUB
HKG MCO
HKG KEF
HKG YUL

lavalampluva wrote:

I don't understand the obsession with KEF. I swear just about every fan boy in the US would sell their soul to get a flight from their city to Iceland.

Its a great geographical location to connections to Europe and its tourism is Thriving.

Also cities can easily land a ULCC with less then daily service on a narrowbody, compared to a widebody needing daily service on a legacy carrier. Its much easier to land a flight on a ULCC. I bet we see more PIT type cities pop up for WOW, less then daily service targeted purely at the leisure traveller

aklrno wrote:

Am I missing the joke here? A country of about 320,000 people needs service to the other side of the globe?

Did you not read the article? The demand is all or mostly all originating in Asia. Same reason why a place like the Maldives gets lots of flights from Europe and Asia.

Yes the data is a little fuzzy but with the right operating cost, if the demand is there I don't see why not. If Hong Kong is indeed the largest market, it strikes me as a good route for KA with code-share partnership with FI.

NichCage wrote:

Never knew that Asian tourists visited Iceland, but to be honest Icelandair would never start flights to Asia. They don't have the proper fleet range to do it (they operate 757's and 767's).

Icelandair did do flights to Japan from KEF using a 767-300ER.

I think they would be better off flying to somewhere like Istanbul, Dubai or Delhi, because they could offer connections between the USA/Canada and these places and Iceland is about half way.

peterinlisbon wrote:

I think they would be better off flying to somewhere like Istanbul, Dubai or Delhi, because they could offer connections between the USA/Canada and these places and Iceland is about half way.

Except that turnaround times would be impossible to match with the US/Canada departure banks out of KEF. Aircraft would have to be parked for 20 hours or so at destination, making it a very expensive operation. This is why Icelandair's destinations are limited to BER, maybe PRG...in order to get back to KEF in time for the US/Canada departures.

There are actually a lot of Asians wanting to visit Iceland as tourist. So not surprised with the number of searches. But there are so many connection choices that you don't need a non-stop flight between KEF and HKG. The demand is going to be highly seasonal, around Christmas, Chinese New Year and summer holidays. If there is ever non-stop flight, that would be one-off charter. If Iceland is serious about this, they should talk to travel agencies in HK to see if they are interested to partner on doing some charter flights during tourist season. They can certainly charter a 787 from Thomas Cook or Thompson, etc. to do this flight. CX would probably be stretched very thin during the holiday season in terms of aircraft and crew capacity to entertain these one-offs.

HELyes wrote:

the scheduled charters like Thomson 787 HEL-MRU once every two weeks is a way to get your exotic (package) holiday with lower price

Without wanting to derail the topic - I took Thomson's 787 MAN-MRU-MAN over Xmas and paid £400 return (I saw it as cheap as £319 return at one point - amazing price considering next cheapest flights at this time are around £800-£1000). The flight was fine and indeed, as you say is a scheduled charter carrying mostly Thomson holidays passengers and a handful of Mauritians including myself who know about this deal and book flight only. MRU thus sees service from places which couldn't sustain a year round service such as MAN, HEL, ARN and WAW.
I'm not sure of any Asian airlines which compare to Thomson though that could do a similar thing to KEF though.
I'd love to see MRU have a flight to YYZ or YUL (much more likely North American destination from MRU than DTW!). But of course, it ain't ever gonna happen

The reason for the high number of searches is that there had been quite a number of error fare deals from HKG to KEF in the past year.
Real demand-wise, there are tons of more obvious choices for a direct HKG-Europe flight, like BRU, LIS, BCN,WAW,OSL, PRG...

yonahleung wrote:

The reason for the high number of searches is that there had been quite a number of error fare deals from HKG to KEF in the past year.
Real demand-wise, there are tons of more obvious choices for a direct HKG-Europe flight, like BRU, LIS, BCN,WAW,OSL, PRG...

....and we're back from La La Land to common sense...

MalevTU134 wrote:

yonahleung wrote:

The reason for the high number of searches is that there had been quite a number of error fare deals from HKG to KEF in the past year.
Real demand-wise, there are tons of more obvious choices for a direct HKG-Europe flight, like BRU, LIS, BCN,WAW,OSL, PRG...

....and we're back from La La Land to common sense...

Or from La La Land to Po Land?