Icelandair carried 466,000 passengers in September 2026, down 3% year on year, even as its load factor climbed to a September record of 84.9%. Capacity fell 8%, helping lift occupancy by 3.2 percentage points and pushing yield up 14% to 10.30 US cents.
Traffic patterns continued to shift towards Iceland. Passenger numbers to Iceland rose 7% and those from Iceland increased 11%, while connecting traffic fell 15% and domestic passengers declined 7%. The mix suggests the carrier is leaning more heavily on origin-and-destination demand rather than transfer volumes through Keflavík.
The stronger load factor came despite the lower total passenger count, pointing to tighter capacity management and firmer pricing. The improvement in yield gives the traffic update added commercial weight, indicating better revenue quality even as overall demand softened. On-time performance was reported at 85.4%.