Iceland Express causes further controversy
Iceland Express has risked further damaging its reputation in the UK after cancelling bookings for one of its seven flights a week to Gatwick and switching the service to Stansted.
Passengers booked on the Tuesday service from Reykjavik to Gatwick have received emails from the airline advising them their flights had been cancelled and inviting them to call its reservations centre to re-book.
The airline will operate one flight a week from Stansted until June 20, after which it will add a Friday flight until the end of August.
Chief commercial officer Thorunn Reynisdóttir said: "Operating a low-fare model, we run on a supply and demand basis. We offer several dedicated routes all year round, but may alter frequency of flights in order to meet demand elsewhere.
"Our summer schedules have been promoted in the UK for several months now and to offer passengers further choice we have added Edinburgh and Stansted to the summer schedule which does mean that our flights from Gatwick have changed."
She said passengers affected can rebook at no extra cost, even if the flight is more expensive, or cancel for a full refund.
Following pressure from customers, Iceland Express has also now agreed to absorb any rise in taxes, caused by APD, for rebooked flights stemming from cancellations.
Discover the World, an operator that specialises in trips to Iceland, said it had stopped working with the airline several years ago "due to the extremely unreliable way they operated".
At the time the operator threatened legal action against Iceland Express, which in turn accused the operator of owing it money.
Discover the World said on its website that it understood there had been a significant improvement in the airline’s service levels recently due to a new management structure and more reliable aircraft, but it was still "wary" about recommending their services.
"For this reason we do not offer seats on this airline," it said
Discover the World is also refusing to work with Wow, a rival budget airline which plans to launch three flights a week from Stansted to Iceland next month. "Their team includes members of the previous management of Icelandic Express – see above. They have no track record and until we see what their levels of service and reliability are we are unable to recommend them," it said.
Iceland Express initially launched flights to Stansted in November 2009, but pulled out the following year due to lack of demand. It also offers two flights a week from Edinburgh.
By Linsey McNeill
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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