It's still one month until Christmas and already we've found a lump of coal in our stocking. Yesterday, the low-cost airline Iceland Express went out of business after its operator, Astraeus, went bankrupt. This sucks! It's bad news no only because it's horrible when a company travelers count on ceases to operate, but also because Iceland Express' cheery orange planes were the only option for affordable one-way flights from New York to Iceland, and even on to Europe.

Going roundtrip on Iceland Express from New York to Reykjavik could go as low as $399, and secretly we've been dreaming of hopping a transatlantic cruise, then returning from London via Iceland Express with a stopover in Iceland. Perhaps it all seemed too perfect, we knew it wouldn't last. The airline even had Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson as a pilot. ]]> JetSetCD 2011-11-23T11:34:47-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2011/10/21/101313/60

With the threat of winter also comes the drop of tourism to Iceland, unless you enjoy having only several hours of a sunlight each day. In New York, Iceland Tourism is plastering the interior of subway cars with ads attempting to attract travelers to come spot the Northern Lights, but we're not fooled; it's going to be dark and cold the rest of the day too! Thus, in a sort of ode to the change in seasons, we're enjoying this time-lapse video of one traveler's three-month-long driving trip around the country.

In it, there's the standard panning across breathtaking views, but also a few surprises, which causes it to stand out; he time-lapses his own packing (1:05) and setting up his tent waterfall-side (5:00), plus other tourists enjoying the sights (see especially around 2:00 for that).

This may perhaps be the last chance to smile at the beauty of Iceland, since another of the country's volcanoes may erupt and cause what's becoming an annual international travel meltdown. So...yeah. Enjoy!]]> JetSetCD 2011-10-21T10:13:13-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2011/10/18/83411/297

If you remember back to the not that long ago time known as yesterday, we mentioned how there’s one of those pesky volcanoes causing a little trouble on the bottom half of the earth. Well back up on the top half there might be some problems too, and once again we’re ready to blame Iceland.

At least this year it’ll be a little easier to pronounce and discuss, as the problem child is the Katla volcano. This pesky little sucker is located towards the country’s southern coastline, and unfortunately it’s much larger than the Eyjafjallajokul that we remember so well from last year. Some scientists even think that if Katla gets a little feisty that it could make last year’s ash problems seem small by comparison—oh boy. ]]> kjb 2011-10-18T09:04:50-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2011/6/27/9207/16127

Yes, this airplane totally exists and yes, we feel kinda late to the news since it's actually been tooling around the world since notorious heavy metal band Iron Maiden customized an Astraeus Airlines Boeing 757 in 2008 to fly around on their world tours. It wasn't until this week that we really learned what we were missing, when Lonely Planet's US Editor Robert Reid hopped onboard "Ed Force One" for a tete-a-tete with Iron Maiden frontman (and the plane's Captain) Bruce Dickinson. You can read the first bit of Reid's adventures here.

What the what?! It just seems too awesome to handle. Heavy metal man Dickinson goes from flying high on stage to champion fencer to flying high literally, as a part-time pilot with Astraeus. Iron Maiden is still touring, believe it or not, but Bruce makes time to jet. And—here's the real news—the plane is now on a somewhat regular schedule flying to the US from Iceland, with international low-cost carrier Iceland Express.]]> JetSetCD 2011-06-29T08:54:13-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2011/5/23/13467/4820

We've already caught you up on the pronunciation, location, and identification of Iceland's erupting Grimsvotn volcano, so all that's left is to start ticking off the airport closures.

When the volcano started erupting on Rapture Day, experts at EuroControl, the European air safety organization, predicted literally zero impact on European airspace. Greenland had to cancel flights and Iceland's Keflavik airport was closed over the weekend, but the rest of Europe was supposed to escape a repeat of the Big Ash problems from last year's Eyjafjallajokull eruption.

Scientists pointed out that winds were blowing north rather than south, that the ash was large and coarse rather than fine and pointed (it matters for jet engines), and that the clouds were so heavy that the ash would fall to the ground. Gunnar Gudmundsson, of Iceland's Meteorological Office, insisted that the eruption would not "shut down airports abroad." Not so much, it turns out.]]> Omri 2011-05-23T15:01:30-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2011/5/23/12038/4116

As you're probably already well aware, the Icelandic volcano that blew its top this weekend was one with which we're not yet on cursing terms. It's name is Grímsvötn, and it's not even neighbors with good ol' Eyjafjallajokull.

The good news is that the ash cloud isn't big enough to majorly threaten European air travel such as Eyjaf's did in 2010, and Iceland tourism is about to take off again. The bad news is that the ash cloud already closed Reykjavik's Keflavik Airport for a short period, canceling flights, and it could do the same in a small way to Scotland soon.

Now for the big three things you need to know about the volcanoes: Pronunciation, Location and Identification... ]]> JetSetCD 2011-05-23T09:47:22-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2010/12/1/84647/9174

If it can be said that the second half of 2010 belongs to the controversy over full-body scanners, then the first half of the year definitely goes to the flight-cancelling powers of the eruption of Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano and its resulting ginormous ash cloud. Because this natural event so disrupted air travel for most of March and all of April, the traveling public now has it branded into their minds, so naturally there should be an easy website to quickly check whether or not an Icelandic volcano is erupting right now.

The isanicelandvolcanoerupting.com site comes from the good people at Reykjavik-based budget airline Iceland Express, but it's for everyone. ]]> JetSetCD 2010-12-01T08:46:47-05:00 Search Jaunted string http://www.jaunted.com/search/