Icelandair has touched down in Poland for the first time. The airline launched its inaugural scheduled service to Gdansk this week, marking its first destination in the country, with celebration events held for passengers at both Keflavík International and Gdansk Airport when the plane arrived.
The route runs three to four times a week and works in both directions. For travellers in northern Poland, it opens a handy way to reach Iceland and, more interestingly, to connect through Keflavík onward to Icelandair's wide North American network. For North Americans and Icelanders, it means a direct link to one of Poland's most characterful cities.
Gdansk earns the attention. It's one of Poland's oldest cities, with a beautifully restored Old Town, a historic waterfront on the Baltic, and a rising profile as a year-round city break. Add solid food, lower prices than Western Europe, and easy day trips along the Pomeranian coast, and the case gets stronger.
Icelandair chief commercial officer Tomas Ingason called Poland an important market, saying the airline sees demand both from people flying point-to-point and from those connecting through Keflavík to and from North America. Gdansk Airport's Iwona Tomczyńska noted the airport was proud the Pomerania region was chosen for the airline's Polish debut, pointing travellers towards quick connections to the United States and Canada via Iceland.
Why it matters: Icelandair has long used Keflavík as a stopover hub between Europe and North America, and Gdansk slots neatly into that model. If you're in the US or Canada and fancy a European city that isn't Prague or Paris for once, this is now a one-stop trip. And if you're Polish, a trip to Iceland's waterfalls and hot springs just got much simpler — with the option of a stopover in Reykjavík along the way.
The route is new, so schedules and frequencies may settle in over the coming months, but both airlines and airport have talked up a long-term commitment. For anyone plotting a Baltic coast break or a North America connection from northern Poland, it's worth keeping an eye on fares as the service beds in.
Story first reported by Breaking Travel News.
