History
Icelandair Group traces its roots to the year 1937 when a fledging airline, Flugfélag Akureyrar, was founded at Akureyri on the north coast of Iceland. In 1943 the company moved its headquarters to the capital Reykjavík and changed its name to Flugfélag Íslands, which later assumed the international trade name Icelandair.
In 1944 another Icelandic airline was founded, Loftleiðir, by three young pilots returning from flight training in Canada. Initially, both companies concentrated on Icelandic domestic air services but then began international flights between Iceland and other countries. In 1953 Loftleiðir pioneered low-fare services across the North Atlantic and became quite successful for the greater part of two decades.
In 1973, however, it was agreed to merge both Flugfélag Íslands and Loftleiðir under a new holding company, Flugleiðir. In October 1979 Flugleiðir assumed all operating responsibilities of its two parentes and decided to use Icelandair as its international trade name, retaining the Flugleiðir name for the Icelandic domestic market.
In January 2003 Flugleiðir became a holding company with 11 susidiaries in the travel and tourist industry in Iceland with Icelandair being the largest subsidiary. In 2005 the name Flugleiðir was changed to FL Group which would concentrate on investment, while Icelandair continued its flight operations under the aegis of a separate company, Icelandair Group. The board of directors of FL Group announced in February 2006 its intention to list Icelandair Group on Iceland Stock Exchange. Then in December of the same year the company was listed as ICEAIR on the ICEX.
The next year FL Group landed in dire financial straits and then Icelandair Group was hit by the 2008–2012 Icelandic financial crisis. In 2009 Icelandair Group started a financial restructuring, which was successfully completed in February 2011.
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