In 2015 more than 56 thousand Icelanders arrived in the US, which is a much higher per capita proportion than in any of the other Nordic or Baltic countries.
Passengers traveling through Iceland’s Keflavik International Airport can choose from more US bound flights than people traveling west from Copenhagen, Oslo, Stockholm or Helsinki, even though the population in Iceland is much smaller than in any of the other four Nordic countries. The main reason for this great selection of US routes is Iceland’s favorable geographic location that has enabled Icelandair, and now WOW air as well, to build a successful hub at the Keflavik International Airport, connecting flights from mainland Europe and North-America approximately midway between the two continents.
Due to this great traffic and overall shorter traveling times a larger share of Icelanders choose to travel to the US each year than elsewhere in the Nordic countries. According to statistics from Discover America, 56.389 Icelanders arrived in the US in 2015, which is 17% of the total population on the island. In comparison around 6% of Danes, Swedes and Norwegians traveled to the US in 2015.
As shown on the table below the Finnish people are the least likely to travel to the US and part of the explanation for this might be the great selection of flights from Helsinki to destinations in Asia. Finnair has, just like the Icelandic airlines, built a successful hub in the Finnish Capital but from there the planes are bound for the Far East instead of the US.
Direct US routes from Keflavik International Airport: New York-JFK, New York-Newark, Boston, Washington-Dulles, Washington-Balitmore Int., Denver, Miami, Orlando, Tampa, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Portland, Seattle, Anchorage, Chicago, Philadelpia, Pittsburgh and Minneapolis.
