Number of passengers at Keflavík Airport in Iceland 2009-2023

Although the number of passengers recorded at Keflavík International Airport located near Iceland’s capital Reykjavik increased over the last years until 2018, it declined in 2020 to less than 1.4 million due to the COVID-19 pandemic but had recovered to about 7.8 million passengers by 2023. Keflavík remained by far the most popular airport in the Nordic country, based on the number of international passengers. While nearly 4.6 million people arrived at or departed from Keflavík in 2022, the number of international passengers at Reykjavík, Akureyri, and Egilsstaðir airports amounted to overall only about 53,000 passengers.

Most visitors came from the United States

In 2022, the leading nationality of visitors arriving at Keflavík International Airport, opened in 1943 by the U.S. Armed Forces, was the United States. Roughly 27 percent of foreign passengers were recorded from this country. The United Kingdom and Germany followed in second and third place.

Reasons for low passenger numbers

The low passenger numbers in 2020 and 2021, mirror the development at many airports around the world, which were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and associated lockdowns and travel restrictions. However, passenger numbers at Keflavík Airport began to decline prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. The reason for the decline of passenger numbers at Keflavík Airport is the end of operations of Iceland’s low-cost airline WOW air in the beginning of 2019. Its planes used this airport as a hub to reach destinations in Europe and North America.