Airlines have personalities. Singapore and Thai are delightful. Virgin Atlantic is genuinely hip. Lufthansa is desperately dull and tasteless. Air France can’t speak English or keep time, but serve delicious lunches. SAS is mercilessly Scandinavian (don’t for a second try to do anything out of the ordinary – and don’t expect a joke unless the flight attendant is Danish).
Icelandair, where I am sitting right now, is unapologetically provincial, and a throwback to an earlier time of flying. Not only do they fly old SAS planes with blue seat-covers and have stewardesses in blue uniforms with little pillbox hats. They also serve “Egils sodavatn” and a chocolate called Prince HPolo, and the inflight music is relentlessly optimistic (boy, is it fun and vaguely stylish to fly) in a way I haven’t seen outside a Dan Ackroyd parody commercial.
They used to have the smallest business lounge I have ever seen, where you got to know your fellow travellers surprisingly well in the five minutes you got at Keflavik between plane changes, but that has changed – it is now elegant in polished granite and dark wood, and, at least on January 1st, largely empty. Still, it remains fun to see cheesy Christmas decorations in the plane and vaguely threatening signs in Viking language (“Sitjid med sætisælar spenntar”). Now, I hope they have some interesting volcano show going as we pass Iceland…..
Update June 7, 2005: See also…
Applied Abstractions 
Hey…then your country and our airline company have something in common 🙂
Now, you need to check your facts. The airplanes Icelandair operates are NOT old SAS planes. In fact, most of them, have been bought straight from the Boeing plant.
Why blog about this?
Yes Icelandair sucks
Yes Icelandair sucks
Well I must say I was amused when I read your brief description of our one of two international airlines 🙂 And that threatening Viking language – not so crude, infact, since all it stresses is to remind the passenger to sit with seatbelts fastened at all times 🙂 Oh and Prince “Holo” is acctually Prince Polo and made in Polland, and has, somehow, over the years become a kind of national dish in Iceland 🙂 Just figured I’d give you my point of view 🙂 Oh and I also must say that I think Iceland Air is heaven compared to Northwest in the USA… but again that’s just me 🙂
gegt flott blogg haltu áfram að blogga mætti setja inn myndir af djamminu eða eithvað bæbæ,
Þór
gegt flott blogg haltu áfram að blogga mætti setja inn myndir af djamminu eða eithvað bæbæ,
Þór
Well, Þór, my Icelandic is very rudimentary, but I think “flott blogg” means something like “good blogg” and “haltu áfram að blogga” means something like “keep on blogging” and then I will just have to give up on the rest….
You blogg sucks big time. There is nothing true that you write about on your blog. Old SAS planes??, are you kidding me. All the planes that Icelandair fly, are almost brand new, bought straight from the Boeing company. So, shut up about talking dirty about my lovely company, i will sue your ass big time motherfucker.
You blogg sucks big time. There is nothing true that you write about on your blog. Old SAS planes??, are you kidding me. All the planes that Icelandair fly, are almost brand new, bought straight from the Boeing company. So, shut up about talking dirty about my lovely company, i will sue your ass big time motherfucker.
Shut your mouth asswipe. You don´t talk dirty about Icelandair unless you want us to sue your ass. Your blogg sucks big time and long time for quite a while so no smile for a mile. Stick your blog up your uncle ass and dont fly Icelandass. So mo fo, no Icelandic dirty talk, or you will have a long walk to heaven. Hey, have you heard the song Heaven that we song about in the Eurovision song contest three years ago?? Its fantastic! You can sometimes hear it in Icelandair planes, and then everybody starts dancing and screaming and drinking lot of beers. Sometimes you can have sex with the stewardess if they are in the mood. Hilsen from Halldór Pilsen.
Shut your mouth asswipe. You don´t talk dirty about Icelandair unless you want us to sue your ass. Your blogg sucks big time and long time for quite a while so no smile for a mile. Stick your blog up your uncle ass and dont fly Icelandass. So mo fo, no Icelandic dirty talk, or you will have a long walk to heaven. Hey, have you heard the song Heaven that we song about in the Eurovision song contest three years ago?? Its fantastic! You can sometimes hear it in Icelandair planes, and then everybody starts dancing and screaming and drinking lot of beers. Sometimes you can have sex with the stewardess if they are in the mood. Hilsen from Halldór Pilsen.
Here we have a fine example of icelandic youth at it¨s best :).
Okey… Uhhh.. Halldór Pilsen how old are you anyway? have sex with them since when was that possible and Prince Holo is acctuly Prince Polo and last time when i was on that plane there was Heaven playing and no one just started screaming and dancing and getting drunk and that the stewardess are in the mood to have sex with you… anyway your comment P.S Icelandair dosen´t suck or is that super good it´s just average….
Hahaha…
This is so true. Flying Icelandair is so boring. Most of the plains are actually new as someone has stated here before.
The FA uniforms are so 1970’s and the service is just basic, nothing more to add to that.
Having flown with Thai Airlines, Singapore Airlines, Saudia, Virgin, Southwest etc I can verify every word that Espen has posted. That compaired to those airlines Icelandair is VERY DULL.
Nuff said.
Xavier
Iceland
Yes the business lounge is very small but icelandair rules.
Well, I’ve been in the buisness lounge and i must say i seriously thought about staying there for the weekend instead of going to Netherlands as planned 😛
Plus the Icelandair got rewarded for beeing one of the best airlines in the world.
Hey Espen read this , Shut the fuck up u tourist mother fucker! like we dont have anything to say about your fucking ugly smelly country. ooo u bet! ill bet u are some fat old man that is so fucking fat that he cant even wipe his own ass!
Hey Espen read this , Shut the fuck up u tourist mother fucker! like we dont have anything to say about your fucking ugly smelly country. ooo u bet! ill bet u are some fat old man that is so fucking fat that he cant even wipe his own ass!
P.S.: dont mess with iceland
úff, íslendingar að grenja :). Þroskist og ekki gefa svona vonda ímynd af Íslandi. Og já, Icelandair er alveg ágætt svosem, hræðilega leiðinlegar tónlistarstöðvar samt.
Vert þú ekki með kjaft norsara kvikindi.
I just want to say sorry for all of those icelandic idiots here…
we are not all that stupid… so hope you forgive us and come back to Iceland someday… it’s lovely!
Icelandair is definately not one of the best airlines in the world but it’s fairly above average, I have used many crappier airlines in my travelling days, e.g. Azurra Air, SpanAir and more…
so the result is that Icelandair is “ok” but not as fancy as you would like it to be (with the pricez and all)
LATER
iceland is the best country in the world so fuck of espen motherfucker
Well, I seem to have touched a raw nerve somewhere. Fascinating – most experts see the concept of the “flagship” airline as dying, but here we see a reason why it will be with us for quite a while.
As for the derogatory comments, they reflect the authors more than me. After all, big words uttered by people hiding behind false names are not something to be taken seriously.
Incidentally, this post is almost six months old – why the sudden interest now?
Íslandair og íslendingar sucka, ég skammast mín fyrir að vera íslendingur. Fuck Iceland
Íslandair og íslendingar sucka, ég skammast mín fyrir að vera íslendingur. Fuck Iceland
Ég tek undir það…
I tell u wat Espen. Somebody put a link 2 ur homepage @ another homepage (www.b2.is) and as Icelander don’t have much 2 do they like commentin this old blogg lol. They r so touchy as u can c! “don’t mess wiv iceland” etc. In iceland u r not allowed 2 av bad oppinions bout iceland. I av 2 admit dat Im an icelander livin abroad n when I meet ppl here all they say is “ooojjj” “ogedslega skritid” “allt miklu betra heima”… they r basically very negative towards everything different from their country. That explains why icelandic ppl don’t respect oppinions… I mean wats up wiv a man havin an another oppinion then u?! its not like its gonna help writin a comment here… just have to accept dat not everybody luv ur country n their r sum things bout iceland dat dont please ppl dat r used 2 other things….
http://finans.tv2.dk/nyheder/article.php?id=2448859&forside
so where’s icelandair?
I also apalogise for you Icelanders who are dramatically hurt and injured by comments from one Norwegan man about our airline company!!!! The airline company is avarege and thats ok! We are a small country og 300.000 people and why want more? Im flattered that we are compaired to the other airline companies who serve a whole lot more of people than we do and are considered very very good.
Maybe we just think that our airplanes serve their purpose and we choose not to spend our money on making the airport more fancy than it has to be…
I also apalogise for you Icelanders who are dramatically hurt and injured by comments from one Norwegan man about our airline company!!!! The airline company is avarege and thats ok! We are a small country og 300.000 people and why want more? Im flattered that we are compaired to the other airline companies who serve a whole lot more of people than we do and are considered very very good.
Maybe we just think that our airplanes serve their purpose and we choose not to spend our money on making the airport more fancy than it has to be…
Ok, ef þið fattið ekki að þetta fólk var að grínast þá, vá
Makes me sad to see Icelanders make such fools of themselves… and on behalf of our country, no less.
Lots of immature rants here. And here I thought Americans were cought up in nationalism… they’re beginners when compared to the arrogant Icelandic youth. I’m glad we don’t have any armed forces or Iceland would soon be starring in the sequel to “The Mouse that Roared” (look it up if you don’t get the reference).
Icelandair is pretty lame on an international scale, but they have one thing over the rest, and that’s the fact that they don’t charge you extra for the movies.
Makes me sad to see Icelanders make such fools of themselves… and on behalf of our country, no less.
Lots of immature rants here. And here I thought Americans were cought up in nationalism… they’re beginners when compared to the arrogant Icelandic youth. I’m glad we don’t have any armed forces or Iceland would soon be starring in the sequel to “The Mouse that Roared” (look it up if you don’t get the reference).
Icelandair is pretty lame on an international scale, but they have one thing over the rest, and that’s the fact that they don’t charge you extra for the movies.
That’s a nice comment there Margrét. I happen to have the exact same oppinion as you in this matter. So Epsen… keep up the good work on makeing dumb icelandic people mad. 🙂 It’s not an accomplish becouse it isn’t hard but… keep it up anyway. 😀
Btw… sorry for the shitty writeing… long time since i talk to wrote something in english (engrish 🙂 )… but moast people can understand this and that’s what i’m trying to do. Aren’t we all trying to make at least one person understand us. I will like to think so. 😛
goodness Ace, that has to be the worst english written that I have ever read but what I failed to see what your comment was about even though I think I can understand your “english”.
Of course everything that these silly Icelanders are saying is horse shit and should be taken as such. I have been a passenger with many airlines and the small hearted and mabey small minded non-international Icelander that I am still loves to fly with my old fashioned Icelandair precicely because it is what it is, unpretentious
Spennið sætis ól yðar, hundingi. eð ek mun höggva þig í herðar niður.
😀
Spennið sætis ól yðar, hundingi. eð ek mun höggva þig í herðar niður.
😀
Hey! Prins POLO not prins holo 🙂
Hey! Prins POLO not prins holo 🙂
Jæja. Þetta er nú fyndið. Annarsvegar fólk að láta eins og smábörn og hinsvegar fólk sem er að þykjast vera betra það með því að segja flókin orð. Af hverju erum við að skrifa hérna aftur? Já……. komum í sleik.
þessi gaur hlítur að vera raudhærdur
Those Icelanders are not stupid…they are proud!!! It is like if some one would say to you: Your mother sucks!!! You love your mother and you stand up for her and say “fuck you” to the one who said that your mothe sucked!!!
Is that beeing stupid? To stand up for what you love???…..
…It is stupid not to!!!!!!!!
Rauðhærðir eiga eftir að sigra heiminn. Id just like to apologize for my fellow Icelanders and I compelely agree on you that Icelandair is Ok, witch is quite good compaired to bigger airlines that are considerably worse.
Heija Norge
To Proud Icelander:
You cannot be proud of something over which you had no control.
You can be proud of your accomplishments, but you cannot be proud of how or where you were born.
That goes for “proud Americans” as well…
and gay pride… (if you’re trying so hard to convince the world it’s not a choice, how can you be proud of what you are?)
You can love your country, and you can stand up for your country, but you cannot be proud of having been born there… it wasn’t your doing and it wasn’t an accomplishment.
To Proud Icelander:
You cannot be proud of something over which you had no control.
You can be proud of your accomplishments, but you cannot be proud of how or where you were born.
That goes for “proud Americans” as well…
and gay pride… (if you’re trying so hard to convince the world it’s not a choice, how can you be proud of what you are?)
You can love your country, and you can stand up for your country, but you cannot be proud of having been born there… it wasn’t your doing and it wasn’t an accomplishment.
hey a norge!!!!
Old jokes on our small ireland hehehehe!!!!!!!!!
Þið eruð æðislegir allir með tölu.
Hvað er svona merkilegt við þetta helvítis flugfélag? Það er gjörsamlega búið að taka ykkur í rassgatið. Sjáið hvað gerist ef Icelandexpress rúllar á hausinn. Það myndi kosta um og yfir hundrað þúsund að skreppa til köben.
ÉG ELSKA ALLA!
Þið eruð æðislegir allir með tölu.
Hvað er svona merkilegt við þetta helvítis flugfélag? Það er gjörsamlega búið að taka ykkur í rassgatið. Sjáið hvað gerist ef Icelandexpress rúllar á hausinn. Það myndi kosta um og yfir hundrað þúsund að skreppa til köben.
ÉG ELSKA ALLA!
ahahahahHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH….hann er 0rugglega rauðhærður….classic!
Any comments on
WIG WAM
In my dreams
They are old fashion and we like it here in the land of fire and ice.
Regards
Hi there, I liked your description of Icelandair 🙂 you should really come to Icceland and hear the real crude Viking language we have 🙂
I’d like to say that you’r oppinion about Icelandair does not come as a surprise to me, personally I think most of the stuardess are rude and yes a bit old fashion in the way they dress.. But what matters is that you got to your destenation (hopefully in an estemated time) and the plaine didn’t fall apart despite being old..
I really hope that you don’t take Icelanders to be rude though.. We are just protective about our country, there for some of us have to use bad language and make all kinds of threats that don’t make any sense at all. But after all you can’t blame us, we are but small country and have been tought that we CAN to do big things like others dispite the population number..
I really hope that you will visit Iceland some day and enjoy it.
I’d like to say that you’r oppinion about Icelandair does not come as a surprise to me, personally I think most of the stuardess are rude and yes a bit old fashion in the way they dress.. But what matters is that you got to your destenation (hopefully in an estemated time) and the plaine didn’t fall apart despite being old..
I really hope that you don’t take Icelanders to be rude though.. We are just protective about our country, there for some of us have to use bad language and make all kinds of threats that don’t make any sense at all. But after all you can’t blame us, we are but small country and have been tought that we CAN to do big things like others dispite the population number..
I really hope that you will visit Iceland some day and enjoy it.
Eg verð að segja að ég er að skammast mín smá að vera Íslendingur við það að lesa þetta má fólk ekki hafa sínar skoðanir ég meina við vitum að Icelandair er eitt besta flugfélag í heiminum afhverju og þeir eru bara sárir að hafa ekki svona gott flugfélag
Eg verð að segja að ég er að skammast mín smá að vera Íslendingur við það að lesa þetta má fólk ekki hafa sínar skoðanir ég meina við vitum að Icelandair er eitt besta flugfélag í heiminum afhverju og þeir eru bara sárir að hafa ekki svona gott flugfélag
WHO BLOODY CARES?????????I THINK YOU ALL GOT MAJOR PROBLEMS.
Svo er fólk að tala um hve óþroskað og heimskt fólk frá bandríkjunum er? Af hverju virðist vera svona mikið af 14 ára krökkum sem eru nýbúin að læra ensku sem vill gera sig að fífli með því að babla bara eitthvað kjaftæði? Þetta er ekki þjóðarstolt. Að geta tekið gagnrýni og gert eitthvað við hana er þjóðarstolt. Að harðneita og kasta blótsyrðum framan í gagnrýnendurna og saka þá um ýmislegt er ekkert nema heimska. Þrsoskist aðeins og fyrir alla muni ekki segja neitt á erlendum síðum nema þið séuð orðin 18 eða séuð nógu þroskuð til að hafa uppi vitrænar umræður.
This is just a remnant of a too big ego and nationalistic pride which has just become silly. Also most of those people that comment like they are 14 year old kids which have just learned engelsk are probably that. 🙂
hey there Espen
i haven’t really travelled with many airlines in my life, as a matter of fact, i’ve only travelled with Icelandair and and Air Iceland (wich is only the domestic part of Icelandair, and was once under the same name) and i have to say i think the service and planes are quite diffrent from each other.
In international flight, Icelandair has two types of plains B757-200 and B757-300. The B757-200 plains are quite old, and it seems to me that often there are quite “bitchy” stewerdresses (i hope that is spelled right) in them. But the B757-300 are newer than the others, and the stewerdresses seem to me to be a lot nicer there than in the 200’s
In domestic flight, there are three types of plains, there is a Fokker-50, Metro-27 (I THINK) and Twin Otter. The Fokker is the largest of those three, quite small though, it has fair service and fair seats, wich is fine, as the longest flights you get in those is 45 minutes UNLESS you go to Fore Islands (hope it’s spelled correctly) and Greenland, and i don’t know the time there. The Metro’s are very small, you can’t stand upright, and you should bring earplugs, just in case, because they are VERY, VERY loud, there is no service in those.
I don’t know anything about the TO’s.
Jaherna… eintóm börn hérna inná… þetta eru nú hans skoðanir á málunum, ég hef flogið nú með icelandair og finnst það fínt.. Þó mættu þeir hafa ungar og huggulegar flugfreyjur 😛 En hann má nú hafa pínu skoðanir greyjið, en Normenn eru fínir allavega þegar ég fór þangað.. Þá var manni tekið fagnandi og mjög kurteisir þeir.
Þessi comment voru nú ekki eins niðrandi eins og blaðamaðurinn frá Englandi sem fjallaði um Bláa lónið 🙂
Its pathetic how icelanders just cant take any hint of criticism. icelandair do fly a LOT of older planes. the hostesses are rude and you generally have to sit with your garbage for half the flight. icelandair is more on a par with aeroflot or and eastern block airline. but then iceland is really a bit of a backward eastern block like country. the only people who dont see that is icelanders. iceland is overated and so is icelandair.
hei Espen!
ok, jeg har bodde i Norge 1 år da jeg var yngre, likte det der men nå bor jeg på Island og liker det egentlig ikke så mye.. desverre 😦
Og du kanskje kan se hvorfor på alle de kommentene du har fått, alle tenker at Island er best i verden og at alt er best på Island! Men sånn er det ikke, jeg kom hjem fra Mexico i går og jeg må si at jeg likte meg egentlig bedre der en på Island!
Folk på Island er ikke så vennlig som folk i utlandet og det er mange ting jeg kan si som er ikke er gode for Island… Men selv om jeg liker det ikke så veldig så bor jeg her fortsatt (vet ikke helt hvorfor!)
Men uansett, så liker jeg det du skrev om IcelandAir… det er helt sant!!
Hilsen en islandsk nordmann 😉
I love Icelandair, I love Iceland, and I love Pragi – Francine Brussels (remembering 14 augustus 2005)
I know I am like, really, really ,really ,really late, but damn. My dad is a pilot for Icelandair and I happen to have met loads of airhostesses [I don’t know how to write that] and they are nice as ‘Insert something that you like’. Maybe they get tired of doing the same thing all over again. I don’t know. OR maybe they are just rude ‘Bitches’. Either way, we are such a small population and Icelandair works just fine for us. We don’t need anything bigger or better than that so it’s satisfying for us. And wow, Icelanders couldn’t get any more big headed. Surely you are proud but sometimes you should keep your mouth shut. And for the Icelandic Iceland haters. Well then go, I wouldn’t miss you. Let they guy/girl have his/hers opinions. I don’t like alot if things and sure I rant in my blog, never had anyone yell at me for it. Maybe you just did that cause it’s a foreigner?
And why did you [By you I mean that person that wrote that not the person that has the blog] say that there are just ’14 year old that don’t have good English’ that type here and make fool of themselves. I am 15 and I think I write in proper English. I write better than my own grandfather so it could be 60 year old internet nerds from Iceland that are typing most on here. =] Take a chill pill like many people say….
HAHAHAHA Icelandair sökkar, Iceland Express ownar