108 thousand departures of foreign passengers in September

The number of foreign passenger departures from the country via Keflavík Airport was around 108 thousand in September, according to figures from the Icelandic Tourist Board and Isavia. We have to go back several years to see similar figures in foreign departures in the month of September.

American and Germans were the largest nationalities in August, or roughly 41 of the total count.

Since the beginning of the year, about 445 thousand foreign passengers have departed Iceland, a 3.6% decrease compared to the same period last year when the number of foreign passengers departing was about 461 thousand. Compared to 2019, the decrease is 71%.

Departures by nationalities 

In September, the vast majority of departures were Americans, or just over a quarter (27.8%). The Germans came second, but their departures were about 13,900 or 12.9% of the total. Third were British departures, about 6.1% of the total, and fourth the French, about 6% of the total departures.

Thereafter came departures of Italians (5.6% of the total), Poles (5.4% of the total), Danes (3.9% of the total), Spaniards (3.9% of the total), Dutch (3, 4% of the total) and Belgian (2.7% of the total). In total, the departures of the ten largest nations were 77.2% of the total.

Departures January to September

As can be seen from the table to the right, the number of departures of foreign passengers this year is 4% lower than the last. When looking at departures in the last six months, however, it can be seen that the number has more than tripled between years, with departures measured at 433 thousand in the period April to September 2021 and around 127 thousand in 2020. The table also shows comparisons with departures in 2019.

Departures of Icelanders

The number of departures of Icelanders in September was about 29 thousand, but in the same month last year, they were about 5 thousand. Since the beginning of the year, the number of departures of Icelanders was about 113 thousand or 6.6% less than in the same period last year.

Further Information

Further division between nations can be seen in the table below and under the Numbers of foreign visitors here on the web.