2023 Review from KEF Airport

In 2023, was the third largest travel year at KEF, with the total number of passengers through the airport was 7,750,091, and there have not been more since 2018. This is a significant increase between years, as the number of passengers increased by 26.5% from 2022, when they were 6,126.000. The percentage of connecting passengers in 2023 was 27.5% compared to 25.1% the previous year. 

Tourist in Iceland

Departures of foreign passengers from the country via Keflavík Airport were around 2.2 million in 2023, according to information from the Icelandic Tourist Board. Of them, Americans were the most numerous or about 28.3%, followed by the British with about 12.5%. There were almost half a million more foreign tourists in 2023 than in 2022, which is a 31.1% year-on-year increase. Foreign tourists have been higher once before, in 2018 when they were over 2.3 million.

Icelanders travelled frequently

The departure of Icelanders was around 591 thousand in 2023, or around four thousand more than in 2022. The increase amounts to 0.8% between years. Most of the departures took place in July, when almost 71 thousand Icelanders went abroad. This is the fourth largest travel year for Icelanders when it comes to foreign trips, with their departures measuring around 619 thousand in 2017, 668 thousand in 2018 and 611 thousand in 2019.

Outlook for 2024

Passenger forecast KEF 2024 expects that the number of visitors to the airport will increase between years and will be almost 8.5 million. The forecast assumes that almost 2.4 million foreign tourists will arrive in Iceland via the airport. If the forecast is correct, the year 2024 will be the second largest in the history of Keflavík Airport and the largest in the arrival of foreign tourists to Iceland.