High demand for long-haul travel from North America and the Middle East has been highlighted by travel search engine Skyscanner.
The increasing popularity of Reykjavik – the fastest growing destination from the major hubs of Chicago and Los Angeles during the last 12 months – comes as budget carrier Wow Air expands its transatlantic network to and from the UK via the Icelandic capital.
London tops the chart as the most popular destination from the region over the last year, according to Skyscanner data.
This follows an Iata update reporting strong outbound passenger demand from the US against the backdrop of the relatively robust US dollar. Skyscanner data shows that European destinations are popular from US cities.
Meanwhile, Asian destinations, particularly in the Philippines and India are growing in popularity from the Gulf region, according to Skyscanner. Manila is the most popular destination from Dubai while Luzon is the fastest growing.
Skyscanner’s statistics also point to India being an increasingly popular destination from Abu Dhabi over the past 12 months, including Cochin, Chennai and Bangalore.
Faical Allou, who leads Business Development for Skyscanner’s analytics arm, said: “Iata’s latest passenger report offers important and valuable insight into the current state of play within the airline industry, which, pleasingly, remains strong despite some head winds.
“In this most recent analysis, Skyscanner is also able to compliment this data with forward-looking projections based on consumer intent, which can help interpret the effect of recent changes in the competitive landscape in ways that help airlines and businesses in the aviation sector.”