There is a lot of talks about Icelandic Future in the media this past few days. The one you could not miss is Björk explaining her point of view on Iceland’s future. This post-traumatic debate are in my opinion still a bit early in the route of recovery. There are going to be probably a lot more damage to come. This morning Sterling Airways A/S, an Icelandic-owned low-cost carrier, said it will file for bankruptcy: “Customers who have directly purchased their tickets on Sterling’s website will unfortunately not be refunded neither will their return flights. You therefore have to book your return flights with another airline company.”
In May 2005, The Icelandic investment company that owns Iceland Express has bought Copenhagen-based low cost carrier Sterling from the Fred. Olsen group for 400m Danish kroner (53m€). Now I feel since a while that Iceland Express was in difficulties. I’m betting that they’re going to be the next to fall. That won’t be a bad thing if you ask me. My experience with them has always been terrible. I feel they’re incompetent and not doing they’re job half correctly.
Right now everything is frozen in Iceland. And I’m not just talking about roads. Bank account also. This is a way of sustaining an ok-ish exchange rate between the Icelandic króna and other currencies. In practical terms: no one is able to get foreign currency. So the króna is not getting sold by everyone in a panic which would lead the exchange rate to a devasting plummeting. The central bank of Iceland is controling what could be exchanged or not. They decide what the supermarket can buy, what the country needs and cut everything else. I have no idea how long is this going to take. But as soon as the foreign exchange market opens again, that will be very painful…
