KEF welcomed 8.1 million visitors in 2025

A Total of 28 airlines flew from Keflavík Airport to 100 destinations, with London being the most popular destination city. The most popular airport, however, was Kastrup in Copenhagen.

The bankruptcy of the airline Play affected the number of visitors who passed through KEF last year, as the original passenger forecast for 2025 expected 8.4 million passengers. However, it is interesting that if the forecast for 2025 is compared with the actual figures for the year, but Play is excluded, there is a 5.3% increase in passenger numbers between years.

Foreign tourists were almost 2.3 million last year, which is a 0.4% decrease from the previous year and 0.8% lower than expected in the passenger forecast. However, more than 700 thousand Icelandic passengers passed through the airport, which is an 18% increase from the previous year and 18.6% more than the forecast projected.

Connecting passengers, i.e. passengers who use KEF as a connecting point without staying in Iceland, totalled 2.2 million, or 27% of the total number of passengers. This is a 14% decrease in connecting passengers from the previous year, when connecting passengers were 31% of the total number of airport visitors.

A total of 28 airlines flew to 100 destinations in 2025. London and Copenhagen were by far the most popular destinations last year, as in previous years.

London is unique in that there are flights from KEF to four airports in the city, Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted and Luton. Six airlines flew between London and KEF: British Airways, easyJet, Icelandair, Jet2.com, Play and TUI.

The airport with the most flights to and from KEF was Kastrup Airport in Copenhagen. A total of three airlines flew between the two airports: Icelandair, Play and SAS.

Sixteen new destinations were added during the year, and two new airlines began flights to and from KEF.

The busiest day of the year at the airport in 2025 was on August 3rd, when KEF welcomed 36,694 guests. However, most flights passed through the airport a few days later, on 7 August, with 220 passenger flights. The beginning of August is clearly the time of year when most people are on the move, because in 2024, August 4th was the busiest day of the year at KEF.

According to the Icelandic Tourist Board, 2.25 million foreign tourists passed through Keflavík Airport last year, which is a 0.4% decrease from the previous year. For the past three years, this number has hardly moved, staying at around 2.2 million each year. This is similar to 2017 but slightly less than the record year of 2018, when departures were over 2.3 million.

The vast majority of departures by foreign passengers were in August, or 311 thousand, while in the same month the previous year, they were 281 thousand.

Americans were the most numerous foreign visitors, with a total of 654 thousand departures, or 29% of all departures. The number of US visitors increased by 33 thousand from the previous year. Next came departures of British passengers, which were 233 thousand, or 10.3% of the total. Departures of British tourists decreased by 33 thousand between the two years.

Departures by Icelanders were 709 thousand in 2025, which is an 18% increase from 2024. Most departures were in April, when about 81 thousand Icelanders travelled abroad. This is the largest year for Icelanders in terms of international travel, as it broke the previous record from 2018, when departures were measured at 668 thousand.

Over 7.5 million passengers will travel through Keflavík Airport (KEF) in 2026, of which 2.24 million will be foreign tourists, according to the airport's passenger forecast for the year. The forecast therefore assumes that the total number of passengers will decline year on year, which is mainly reflected in the decrease in connecting passengers and fewer international trips by Icelanders during the year. On the other hand, the number of foreign tourists visiting Iceland is expected to remain almost unchanged and be comparable to recent years.