Loftleiðir

Long before budget airlines became a mass phenomenon, there was already an insider tip for cheap Atlantic flights: a small airline from Iceland that consistently refused to take part in IATA and carried its passengers across the ocean with a short stop in Reykjavík. Loftleiðir, operating internationally as Icelandic Airlines, flew from 1944 to 1979 and is one of the roots of today’s Icelandair. Here you learn how the model worked, which aircraft the Icelanders flew, why Luxembourg of all places played such a big role and how to classify old photos cleanly.

Loftleiðir at a glance

Loftleiðir was a private Icelandic airline that became best known for its inexpensive flights across the North Atlantic. The name means roughly “air routes” in English. It was founded on March 10, 1944, by three young pilots who had been trained in Canada: Alfreð Elíasson, Kristinn Olsen and Sigurður Ólafsson.

Its headquarters were at Reykjavík Airport. From there the airline began with domestic flights, and later it went across the Atlantic. In 1964 Loftleiðir moved all flight operations to Keflavík Airport, whose long runway the larger aircraft needed. On the Icelanders’ map there were mainly two points: New York on one side of the ocean and Luxembourg on the other.

The end came in two steps. In 1973 Loftleiðir and Iceland’s second airline, Flugfélag Íslands, were brought together under a joint holding called Flugleiðir. In 1979 the two flight operations finally merged into a single company – the airline that is called Icelandair today. That is why, depending on the source, you read either 1973 or 1979 as the end date.

Codes and registrations

• IATA code LL: appeared in Loftleiðir’s flight numbers. After the merger, the combined airline flew under the code FI, which Icelandair still uses today.
• Registration TF-: All of its own aircraft were registered in Iceland. At Loftleiðir, registrations with “LL” after the prefix often appear (TF-LL…). However, leased aircraft with foreign registrations also flew for the Icelanders, for example US-registered DC-8s with N registrations.
• International brand: On posters, timetables and tickets abroad, the airline was usually called Icelandic Airlines, often combined with the name Loftleiðir.

How airline and airport codes are structured in general is explained in the article IATA and ICAO codes explained. For reading country prefixes, the guide Understanding aircraft registrations helps.

The story: from Iceland’s fjords to New York

1944 to 1952: domestic beginnings

Loftleiðir’s first paying flight went from Reykjavík to Ísafjörður in northwest Iceland on April 6, 1944. In the first few years the fleet was a mixed bag: Grumman Goose, Stinson Reliant, Noorduyn Norseman, Avro Anson, Consolidated PBY Catalina and the Douglas DC-3 were part of it. Many destinations on the island could only be reached by floatplane or small aircraft.

The first flight abroad came on June 17, 1947: a Douglas DC-4 flew to Copenhagen. In August 1948 the first connection to New York followed, at the time still to Idlewild Airport, today’s New York JFK Airport. In 1952 Loftleiðir gave up domestic flights and concentrated entirely on the Atlantic.

The business model: cheaper than IATA allowed

Loftleiðir’s masterstroke lay in a deliberate decision: the airline did not join IATA. The association set North Atlantic fares for its members at the time, and they were correspondingly high. As an outsider, Loftleiðir could sell its tickets much more cheaply.

Geography played a part, too. Iceland lies roughly halfway between Europe and North America. An Atlantic flight with Loftleiðir consisted of two legs, with a stopover in Iceland in between. That cost time but saved money. Sigurður Helgason, on the board from 1953, is regarded as the head behind this strategy. The New York Times later called him a pioneer of low-cost travel.

The concept worked because there was a clear target group: people who would rather spend a few extra hours en route than spend a lot of money. From the late 1960s so many young Americans traveled to Europe with backpacks that Loftleiðir earned the nickname “Hippie Airline”. How budget airlines cut costs today is covered in the article How low-cost carriers work – so some basic ideas were already known in Reykjavík 70 years ago.

1952 to 1962: partnership with Braathens SAFE

In its first Atlantic years, Loftleiðir worked closely with Norway’s Braathens SAFE. From 1952 to 1962 the two companies shared routes across the Atlantic, similar to a codeshare today. The European focus at that time was in Scandinavia. The partnership ended when Loftleiðir turned toward Luxembourg.

From 1955: Luxembourg as the gateway to Europe

From 1955, Luxembourg-Findel Airport became the most important European starting point for the Atlantic flights. For travelers from neighboring countries such as Germany, France or Belgium, the Grand Duchy was easy to reach. The link between Iceland and Luxembourg outlasted Loftleiðir by many years: Icelandair flew the route until January 1999.

The closeness to Luxembourg led to even more. In 1970, Loftleiðir was among the founders of the cargo airline Cargolux, alongside Luxair, the Swedish shipping company Salén and private Luxembourg investors. Cargolux’s first chief executive was Einar Ólafsson, and the first flights were operated with Canadair CL-44 freighters. In 1974 Loftleiðir and Cargolux even merged their maintenance and engineering departments.

1959 to 1966: the DC-6 and the turboprop era

In 1959 the Douglas DC-6 joined the fleet and gradually replaced the DC-4. Loftleiðir took the next big step in 1964 with the Canadair CL-44D4. The Canadians had developed the aircraft from the Bristol Britannia, and it was powered by four Tyne turboprops from the British manufacturer Rolls-Royce. Loftleiðir was among the first four customers of the CL-44D4 and used its own passenger version.

Because the airline needed as many seats per flight as possible, it had four CL-44s stretched at Canadair. The resulting CL-44J offered room for up to 189 passengers. To keep the maximum takeoff weight the same, the center-wing tanks were dropped – so the aircraft flew less far, but fuller. The first CL-44J arrived in 1966. Loftleiðir marketed it as the “Rolls-Royce 400 PropJet,” hence the occasionally used name “Canadair 400.” For a time it was the largest passenger aircraft over the Atlantic, and no other airline used the CL-44J in passenger service. In total, only 39 aircraft of all CL-44 variants were built.

Late 1960s: jets, the Bahamas and Scandinavia

Toward the end of the 1960s, jets became indispensable at Loftleiðir, too. Around this time the airline also took over International Air Bahama, a small company from the Bahamas that likewise offered cheap Atlantic flights – the source gives either 1969 or 1972 for this. In 1970 the first stretched Douglas DC-8 Series 63 arrived, the so-called Super DC-8. From 1971, the Icelanders also flew between Iceland and Scandinavia again with the DC-8-55.

1973 to 1979: the road to Icelandair

In the early 1970s Iceland had a second airline with international routes in Flugfélag Íslands, and for a small country two competing companies were a lot. On August 1, 1973, the Flugleiðir holding was created, under which both companies initially continued to fly. On October 1, 1979, they merged into a single airline. Internationally it operated as Icelandair – the beginning of the airline you see today in Keflavík, Frankfurt or Munich.

The fleet at a glance

Type	Period (approximate)	Use	Spotter note
Grumman Goose, Norseman, Catalina and others	from 1944	Domestic, partly floatplane	Small types, often with floats or as flying boats
Douglas DC-3	1940s	Domestic	Twin-engine taildragger
Douglas DC-4 / C-54	from 1947	First international and Atlantic flights	Four piston engines, nose gear
Douglas DC-6	from 1959	Atlantic	Similar to the DC-4, but with a pressurized cabin and longer fuselage
Canadair CL-44D4	from 1964	Atlantic	Four Tyne turboprops, fuselage related to the Britannia
Canadair CL-44J	from 1966	Atlantic, up to 189 seats	Much longer fuselage, in passenger service only at Loftleiðir
Douglas DC-8-63 and DC-8-55	from 1970	Atlantic, Scandinavia	Four-engine jets, the -63 with a very long fuselage

The periods are rough guides. Fleet data for historic airlines differ depending on the source, and many aircraft were leased or moved back and forth between Loftleiðir, partners and lessors.

How to recognize Loftleiðir

In old photos, a combination of type, registration and location helps most. Depending on the era, you read the titles as “Loftleiðir,” “Loftleidir” or as the international brand “Icelandic.” A particularly good clue is the CL-44J: a stretched CL-44 with passenger windows almost always comes from Loftleiðir.

Accidents and incidents

Like every airline of the time, Loftleiðir experienced accidents. Some are well documented:

• Geysir, September 14, 1950: The DC-4 TF-RVC “Geysir” crashed on the Vatnajökull glacier on a cargo flight from Luxembourg. All six crew members survived and were found after a few days – a story that is still well known in Iceland today.
• New York, June 23, 1973: A US-registered DC-8 touched down tail first at JFK. US accident investigators saw the cause in a faulty procedure when extending the spoilers.
• Colombo, November 15, 1978: A Loftleiðir DC-8 on a charter flight for Garuda Indonesia carrying Mecca pilgrims crashed shortly before the airport during a night approach to Colombo. It was the worst accident in the Icelanders’ history, with well over 100 fatalities; the exact figures differ depending on the source.

What remained of Loftleiðir

The building in Reykjavík

In the early 1960s, Loftleiðir planned a large complex of offices, terminal facilities and a hotel on the east side of Reykjavík Airport. But because the airline moved its flight operations to Keflavík in 1964, it became mainly a hotel with administration. The building housed Icelandair’s headquarters until 2024. If you are in Reykjavík, you can still see a piece of Loftleiðir history here.

The heirs on the Atlantic

Loftleiðir’s idea found many successors in Iceland. Icelandair made connecting at Keflavík the core of its network. Later Iceland Express, WOW air and PLAY tried budget flights via the island. There were similar approaches outside Iceland as well: Laker Airways with the Skytrain and People Express ventured onto the Atlantic with cheap fares once the pricing rules loosened. Among the big established competition of that era was Pan Am.

Common mix-ups

• Equating Loftleiðir with Flugfélag Íslands – Flugfélag Íslands was the other Icelandic airline, which merged with Loftleiðir in 1979.
• Confusing Loftleiðir with Loftleiðir Icelandic – today’s subsidiary of Icelandair Group carries on only the name.
• Taking Flugleiðir for a separate airline – Flugleiðir was initially the holding above both companies.
• Assuming every CL-44 was a passenger aircraft – most CL-44s flew as freighters, for example at Cargolux or Seaboard World Airlines.
• Automatically assigning “Icelandic” titles to Icelandair – before 1979, Loftleiðir can be behind them as well.
• Counting Loftleiðir as Air Atlanta Icelandic – Air Atlanta Icelandic is an independent, much younger leasing airline.

Conclusion

Back in the 1950s, Loftleiðir showed that flying across the Atlantic does not have to be expensive. The Icelanders deliberately stayed outside IATA, used their island’s location for a stopover and made Luxembourg their gateway to Europe. With the DC-4, DC-6, the unique CL-44J and finally the DC-8, they brought generations of young travelers to Europe. In 1973 the airline came under the Flugleiðir roof, and in 1979 it merged into Icelandair. For you as a spotter, Loftleiðir lives on mainly in old slides, timetables and stories from Luxembourg and Keflavík.