JimInOhio

It looks like the early flight is missing for October or at least much of the month. My hunch is UA's CLE schedules are driven, as much as anything else, by the need to overnight aircraft at CLE for maintenance.

OhioExile

WOW is out. Last flight is next week and they will not be returning next year. Let's hope that improves the viability of the Icelandair flight when it (hopefully) returns.

https://www.cleveland.com/travel/ind..._of_cleve.html

dergon darkhelm

Well... that was fast, eh.

Judging by how many Iceland vacation pics I now see on my FB feed I would have thought loads on those flights were sky high

RNE

Failure Reason No. 1 of 2: Airline marketing never "got" that the country of Iceland is not only irrelevant but a dissuading factor. The word "Iceland" should appear nowhere!

Failure Reason No. 2 of 2: NEO travelers love to squander opportunities.

RNE, reminding everyone that I flew on FI's inaugural CLE-KEF flight. I did my part. What did you do?

P.S.: Yes, I know FI isn't all the way out... yet. But if the failures don't stop, it will be.

guy44134

I've done my civic duty by flying FI! I tried to fly them again after Christmas, too, until they canceled by flights! I know both Icedlandic carriers are struggling right now, but I would bet that FI will be back in CLE in spring as promised. They are a long-established airline with deeper pockets and support in Iceland. Let's hope WW's failure in the market, will be beneficial for them. This also free's up marketing money to lure other carriers.

JimInOhio

Reason #1 : Iceland is way down the list of many people's vacation destinations. Not that there's no reason to go there but it's competing against the French Riviera, London, Ireland, Switzerland, Italy, and on and on.

Reason#2: Changing planes at KEF to get to Europe from CLE provides no real advantage over EWR, ORD, YYZ, IAD, BOS, JFK.

Lastly, if CLE - LHR is not compelling enough for anyone to start service, why would CLE - KEF be so attractive?

lincolnjkc

From the reporting, loads were high/meeting expectations but failed on yield -- e.g. too many cheap tickets.

On one hand its disappointing to see them go, but I never would have flown them (or any other non-allied carrier FWIW) unless I happened to need a cheap nonstop to KEF. If I'm going international it's going to be (a) UA, if that's not possible (b) a *A carrier, and finally if that's not possible (c) an airline that maintains a sufficient number of interline agreements to assure protection if things go wings-sideways. I know that specifically UA and lesser *A have/will/can pull out all of the stops to get me where I'm going and keep me comfortable when pre-digested airline food hits the fan... WOW does not/did not instill the same level of confidence.

Incidentally, IIRC, UA has EWR-KEF so I might wind up in Iceland after all

RNE

That's a good point. But, again, they need to stop touting Iceland. It's like if UA bought billboards on I-90 saying "Fly to beautiful Newark, NJ!" Cuckoo.

^

UA's CLE-LON service was great. (Did that in 2005 when TSMRSRNE was not MRSRNE yet.) But onward travel from LGW was highly problematic. Whereas, CLE-KEF is attractive because of its easy connection airport and single-ticket/same-airline onward travel to umpteen EU destinations. We'll be on FI again in 2019 (if it's still serving CLE. Big if.)

Agreed. Highly-loyal alliance fliers wouldn't be these airlines' target customers.

JimInOhio

CO's service to Gatwick was good for those wanting to get to London but not a whole lot else. I guess they felt it was an additional possible way to get people there instead of just through EWR. IIRC, when CO was allowed access to LHR, they used all of their available slots for EWR and IAH flights. Made sense at the time.

If CLE gets more Europe service some day, I think it will be either AA or BA to LHR. London has to be the biggest single destination and obviously there are OW connections available to every city in Europe and beyond. That said, I don't think it happens anytime soon. AA is a very domestic focused airline so I don't see them jumping in. Heck, they seem to be withdrawing from Asia as quickly as possible which is odd for the world's largest carrier. Does BA really need or want another outpost in N. America that isn't a OW stronghold?

lincolnjkc

As much as I hate DL I wouldn't put a CDG or AMS flight past them... they already have some oddball routes (like CDG-RDU which a coworker's (CLE-based) parents wound up on earlier this week)

JimInOhio

I thought about Delta but they just pulled out of PIT-CDG. If PIT-CDG became unattractive (and DL operated that flight for years) then it's hard to see how they would be enamored with starting a flight from CLE.

OTOH, BA is coming to PIT next year but with AA still stronger at PIT compared to CLE, I can see how BA decided to pick them.

RNE

I opine that CLE-EU service will be provided by an EU airline or none at all. No US carrier will do it.

guy44134

Icelandair delays return to CLE from March to May! That sucks.

https://www.cleveland.com/metro/inde...urn_to_cl.html

RNE

Better than announcing they're not coming back at all. And May is when FI started last year. Why does any of this suck?

manneca

About Iceland not being attractive. Iceland is becoming a huge destination. (Maybe not for Clevelanders.) It doesn't have a large enough tourist infrastructure to support the tourists it's getting. I was booked on the first Iceland Air flight (had to cancel because my son broke his ankle and I had to be chief caregiver) but I was looking for hotels for May in fall of last year and there were some that were already booked up. But I think it's a end of the list item for lots of people. I'm disappointed that Iceland air is not scheduling flights until May. I was hoping to catch a flight for aurora watching in March.