All Hail Niceland Express

Notice anything new? No? Look around a bit more.

[dumdum...]

Oh all right – I have a new graphic ad in my sidebar. See it?

That’s right, I’ve sold my soul to Iceland Express, and very happy I am about it, too. I think every blogger should have graphic ads on their blog as long as they’re in good taste because, you know, it’s so hard to get published these days. And that’s because people don’t read books any more, they read blogs. And so isn’t it grand that bloggers can actually make a little bit of dosh doing what they love and thus feel rewarded and appreciated, and not have to grovel at the feet of some self-important literary agent in order to maybe, maybe, penetrate that brutal, armed fortress known as The Publishing Industry?

[Yes, I've been there, done that, and maybe one day I shall tell you about it.]

Anyway, that’s not what I’m here to talk about – I’m here to tell you about Niceland ‘Spress, which I’m really happy to endorse because they were instrumental in rescuing the Icelandic nation from the monopolistic clutches of old Icelandair. For years and years Icelandair were the only airline serving this tiny nation, which meant that in order to get off the rock we had to pony up whatever extravagant sum they determined we should pay – which unfailingly was about double or triple what passengers travelling from the US and Europe were paying. In real terms this meant that we were subsidizing the low-cost fares Icelandair was offering the punters who flew across the Atlantic. A bitter pill indeed, that unfortunately we were forced to swallow.

That is until low-cost airline Iceland Express stormed onto the scene about five years ago. They started with two destinations, London and Copenhagen, and Icelandair instantly dropped their fares to Europe. Gradually, with added competition, Icelandair lowered their other prices as well, even to destinations that IE doesn’t serve [the US]. Since then Iceland Express have added a bunch more destinations and now fly to a total of 13 cities [at least this summer, see their schedule here] and if news reports over the last few days are to be believed, they are now looking to the Canadian market, what with the freshly-signed aviation agreement with Canada.

Plus – and this is the clincher – an announcement came the other day that Iceland Express is making plans to advance into the domestic flights market. Air Iceland – an Icelandair subsidiary – currently holds the monopoly on domestic flights and uses it to its full advantage – anyone who has ever taken a domestic flight within Niceland will understand. For instance, flying Reykjavík to Egilsstaðir, in the east, costs about the same as flying from Iceland to London, which is obviously just ... wrong. From what I understand these plans hinge on Iceland Express having proper facilities at the domestic airport, an issue that they supposedly are trying to resolve in conjunction with city authorities. So if they could work their magic on the domestic flights market, similar to what they did to the international one, I’m sure we’d all be more than ecstatic.

IT’S SO DARK OUT THERE RIGHT NOW, YOU’D THINK IT WAS WINTER ALREADY
It’s been raining and overcast all day long and, of course, the day keeps getting shorter. It’s amazing how quickly it happens after the summer solstice – after a month or so of round-the-clock daylight it’s suddenly dark for a couple of hours around midnight. It’s been raining on-and-off all day, and is decidedly gloomy. People are carrying around a long face again, including YT. Actually, it just makes me want to go to sleep, which is precisely what I think I’ll do now. Currently 13°C [55F] and sunrise was at 3:55 am, sunset at 11.10.

PS. Incidentally, Niceland ‘Spress have a blog, to which I shall occasionally be contributing.