WOWair

“Loftleidir did
have low fares,
but I think we also
offered quite good
service. When we
had our stopovers
in Reykjavik
our guests
were offered a
complimentary
dinner in a
barrack at the
airport while we
fueled up the
aircraft.”
Lufthansa, Air France and all those great
big airlines? We’re sorry, but this won’t
work. This plan is nonsense.’ And those
were the specialists!” says Dagfinnur and
admits that Loftleidir really didn’t feel the
international competition all that much.
“Well, IATA did try to have us banned in the
US. They brought charges against us in
Washington, D.C., but they didn’t succeed
as the officials said our flights were in the
public’s interest. I think perhaps a part of
that good will from the US officials had
something to do with the fact that they
had an army base here in Iceland at the
time.”
“It went pretty well but, of course,
there were hard times too. Sometimes
we couldn’t even be paid our salaries so we were asked if we would
be willing to take our salaries in shares. Those who did never lost
any money. The overall atmosphere within the airline was really
good; morals were high,” says Dagfinnur adding that he can’t really
explain how the working atmosphere got so good but that to a large
extent it was thanks to Alfred Eliasson. “He was so resourceful in
everything that he did. For instance in how he decided that our
base of operations during the herring flights should be located at
Miklavatn Lake in North Iceland. Iceland Airways always flew out of
Akureyri but Miklavatn Lake was close to the fishing zones and being
based at the middle of its eastern shore gave us greater options for
take offs and landings in all wind directions. And the fact that it is a
freshwater lake was also good because there was less corrosion on
our seaplanes than from seawater,” Dagfinnur explains.
Going international
In 1952 Loftleidir discontinued all domestic routes deciding to
focus solely on international routes and two years later they started
offering prices that had never been seen before, and people loved it.
“Loftleidir did have low fares, but I think we also offered quite good
service. When we had our stop-overs in Reykjavik our guests were
offered a complimentary dinner in a barrack at the airport while we
fueled up the aircraft. They really liked it,”
says Dagfinnur. Note that in those days
a flight between Reykjavik and New York
could take up to 18 hours depending on
the weather. The DC-4 airplanes were
unpressurized and had to fly quite low
often resulting in icing that slowed the
aircraft down.
Hippie Airlines
Being a young airline, long before the
age of the internet, Loftleidir sought new
low-cost ways to introduce themselves in
the market and they found ways to target
young people in the states by teaming up
with colleges to create essay competitions
where the author of the best essay on
Iceland won a trip with the airline. “It
was pretty clever on our publicist’s part.
The kids started competing for the prize
and meanwhile they learned a lot about
Iceland,” says Dagfinnur. Loftleidir became
popular among young Americans as it
enabled them to travel cheaply to Europe
earning it the nickname “Hippie Airlines”
or “Hippie Express” in the late 1960s.
Traveling with Loftleidir became somewhat
of a rite of passage, even Bill and Hillary
Clinton traveled with them to Europe.
Loftleidir did not join IATA (International
Air Transport Association), which defined
the fares for its member airlines on
transatlantic routes at the time, so they
were able to offer considerably lower ticket
prices than the big IATA airlines. Loftleidir’s
passengers had to be more interested in
getting to their destination cheaply than
comfortably or exactly on time. Loftleidir
took advantage of its somewhat underdog
situation and even advertised under the
slogan “We are the slowest but the lowest.”
But they did more than charge less, as
expressed in the slogan “Lowest fare –
most care.”
Jet-setters without jets
Following the massive success of Loftleidir,
their airplanes filled up fast and it
often happened that the bigger airlines
delayed their departures in order to see
if anyone got left behind. “Yes, they came
to our office at Kennedy Airport, KLM and
Lufthansa for example, shortly before
our departures, asking if we had more
passengers than we could carry. They paid
great attention to us and were always
ready to pick up our scraps,” Dagfinnur
says with a laugh.
Yes, the 1960s were booming years for
Loftleidir and they were operating five
Douglas DC-6B Cloudmaster airplanes
which they bought from PanAm. “The DC-6s
changed a lot for us. They were pressurized
so they could fly higher,” says Dagfinnur.
Loftleidir’s fleet started getting both bigger
and faster, first with Canadair CL 44D-4 in
1964 and two years later the first of four
CL44Js.
In 1970, Loftleidir became the founders of
Cargolux, in partnership with Luxair, Selina
shipping company and investors. Dagfinnur
was captain of the first ever Cargolux flight,
along with Kari Jonsson, Jon Ottar and Karl
Oskarsson. This flight was for the Red Cross,
flying relief goods from Zurich to Sao Tome.
Cargolux is still a thriving company and
amongst leading cargo airlines, operating to
the main continents of the world.
Issue six 43