Icelandair Pilots Will Strike Charter Flights From November 20, but Scheduled Flights Are Spared

Icelandair’s pilots have called an indefinite strike starting at 00:01 on Friday, November 20, 2026, but it targets only the airline’s charter flying for other companies. Icelandair Group told the Nasdaq Iceland exchange on November 12 that the action “will not directly affect Icelandair’s passenger network operations.”

That means travelers booked on Icelandair’s scheduled flights, including the transatlantic connections through Keflavik, are not the target. The walkout hits a much narrower slice of the business, and it lands in the middle of a wider fight over where Icelandair’s future flying will be based.

What the Pilots Voted For

The strike was called by the Icelandic Airline Pilots Association, known as FÍA. Its chairman, Jón Þór Þorvaldsson, told mbl.is that turnout was 89.1 percent among the 621 Icelandair pilots eligible to vote, and that 94 percent backed a strike on November 20 if no deal is reached.

“Our goal is not confrontation or disruption. Our goal is to reach a collective bargaining agreement,” Þorvaldsson said.

The action covers passenger and cargo charter flights that Icelandair and Loftleiðir fly for third parties, Iceland Review reported. Icelandair’s own filing describes the target as its “charter operations abroad” and says the financial impact “cannot be determined” yet.

Why Charter Flights, and Why Now

The pilots’ contract expired in the autumn of 2025, and their talks with Icelandair have been before Iceland’s State Mediator since spring. FÍA says it offered several routes to a deal, including a short-term agreement and a shared wage freeze, and that Icelandair rejected all of them.

The unions say the dispute is not mainly about pay. In an open letter published on November 13, the pilots’ union and the unions for Icelandair’s mechanics and cabin crew said the airline has pressed in pilot talks for the right to lease in foreign crews and for more flexibility in crew rest rules.

The unions tie that to Icelandair’s expansion abroad. On October 19 the airline completed its purchase of a 49 percent stake in Fly Play Europe, whose Malta-based subsidiary holds a Maltese air operator certificate. The letter says Icelandair has also set up a subsidiary in Lithuania that handles aircraft maintenance planning and oversight.

According to the unions, Icelandair’s chief executive could not say in August whether Icelandic crews would staff charter flights flown under the Maltese license. The letter, addressed to the Icelandic pension funds that are among Icelandair’s owners, asks them to demand a clear answer on whether work will move out of the country.

That explains the narrow target. The unions’ worry centers on charter flying and who will crew it, so a charter-only strike presses on the question in dispute while leaving the scheduled network, and most of Icelandair’s passengers, flying.

The unions also object to how Icelandair has negotiated. Their letter says the airline bypassed FÍA’s bargaining committee and sent its pay proposal directly to pilots, which they say undermines the union’s legal role.

Iceland Has Stepped In Before

Iceland’s government has a record of moving against Icelandair strikes. In May 2014 the cabinet agreed to put a bill to parliament to stop a pilots’ strike over pay, Iceland Review reported at the time, and WageIndicator reported that parliament passed it.

The most recent case came only two months ago. Icelandair’s mechanics walked out at 00:01 on September 23, 2026, in the dispute AeroCorner covered as the Icelandair mechanics strike, and Icelandair canceled a number of flights that morning.

According to the unions’ open letter, it became clear that same day that the government intended to table a bill banning the strike. The mechanics called it off, and the two sides agreed to four weeks of structured talks.

Those talks ended on October 21 without a deal, the letter says, and the mechanics’ last meeting at the State Mediator was held on November 10. Icelandair put the strike’s cost at $4.0 million in lost operating profit in its third-quarter results.

So Icelandair now has open disputes with its pilots and its mechanics at once. The mechanics’ chairman, Óskar Einarsson, told mbl.is on November 13 that his union sensed no willingness to negotiate from Icelandair and that strike action was not ruled out.

The pilots’ strike itself has no set end date: Icelandair’s filing calls it indefinite. Þorvaldsson told mbl.is the union was due to meet Icelandair after announcing the vote result, so a deal before November 20 would still stop it.