Keflavík? “Invalid Airport”

The official name of Iceland’s major international airport is Keflavík International Airport and its IATA code is KEF.

It is named after the town by which it is located, i.e. Keflavík in South-West Iceland. (Keflavík is pronounced keb-la-veek , not keff-la-vick , for those interested.)

But searching for Keflavík in flight booking engines, for instance, can sometimes draw a blank, as more and more airlines – Icelandic and foreign – have taken to using the name Reykjavik to refer to the airport.

Icelandic tourism and travel website turisti.is reports, that some websites automatically change the airport name to ‘Reykjavik’ when users type in ‘Keflavík’.

Other sites do not even recognise the name ‘Keflavík’. “This city is not available” is the message from Hungarian airline Wizz Air. “No matches found” is the response from Norwegian.

Some airlines refer to Reykjavik-Keflavík or Reykjavik (KEF). Airberlin is the only one to refer to the airport as Keflavík, with no mention of Reykjavik at all.

National carrier Icelandair uses ‘Reykjavík-Keflavík’ on their Icelandic-language website, but drops the Keflavík on its foreign sites. Trying to search for a flight to ‘Keflavík’ on Icelandair’s US website yields the concise reply: “Invalid Airport”.

There is, of course, a Reykjavik Airport (IATA code: RKV) located in the city of Reykjavik itself. RKV is a hub for Iceland’s domestic flights.

Naming airports after the principal destination is not a new thing. The international airport in Luton, UK, is over 55km from Central London but is officially called London Luton Airport (LTN). The town of Keflavík is 47 km away from Reykjavik.