Is Icelandair or TAP Air Portugal better to Europe?

TAP Air Portugal scores 8.5/10 against Icelandair at 6/10 on seat, screens, lounge and fare. On the four dimensions we can verify, Icelandair wins 1 and TAP Air Portugal wins 2. Service and food are not scored here because they cannot be read off a spec sheet.

Which is cheaper, Icelandair or TAP Air Portugal?

On the 105 routes where both were priced for the same week (November 8–14, 2026), Icelandair was cheaper on 92 and TAP Air Portugal on 13. Every pair of fares is the same departure and return date in the same cabin, so the difference is the airline rather than the dates or the cabin.

Does the aircraft change the answer?

Yes. TAP Air Portugal scores 8/10 on the A330-900neo and 5/10 on the A321LR. Check the equipment on your date before deciding.

Has Jon flown either of these?

TAP Air Portugal, in business on a Europe route. Icelandair has not been flown, so nothing here claims firsthand experience of its cabin.

Head to head

Icelandair vs TAP Air Portugal

TAP Air Portugal scores 8.5/10 against Icelandair at 6/10 on seat, screens, lounge and fare.

By Jon Miksis · cabin data verified August 30, 2026 · fares for travel November 8–14, 2026

Best product each one flies

Scored on what can be verified. Service, food and ground recovery are absent deliberately: they need someone in the seat, and they live in the reviews rather than here.

One caveat on the Value line, stated rather than buried: Value is computed from business fares, and a carrier with too few of them does not get a Value score at all. Where you see a dash, we have fewer than three priced business routes for that airline and did not want to invent a figure from one or two — so its product score is the mean of three dimensions rather than four, and it is not directly comparable to a score built on hundreds of fares. The airlines with the most fares behind them are named on the business-class ranking, and where each of these two sits among every carrier we price, on seat and on fare, is on The Best Airlines to Fly to Europe.

Icelandair

737 MAX / 757 (Saga Premium)

Seat: 0/10
IFE: 4/10
Lounge & bags: 10/10
Value: 10/10
Product score: 6/10

TAP Air Portugal

A330-900neo · flown by Jon

Seat: 8/10
IFE: 8/10
Lounge & bags: 10/10
Value: 8/10
Product score: 8.5/10

Where they actually differ

Seat: TAP Air Portugal
0/10 on the 737 MAX / 757 (Saga Premium) against 8/10 on the A330-900neo.
IFE: TAP Air Portugal
Screens, connectivity and power: 4/10 against 8/10.
Value: Icelandair
Median premium over the cheapest carrier on the same route: 10/10 against 8/10.

Level on lounge & bags

As almost every pair is. Of the 31 business cabins we have verified, 28 score 8 on screens and power and 29 score 10 on lounge and bags — because those two dimensions describe what a business fare includes rather than which airline sold it to you. Lounge access, two checked bags and a carry-on are close to the definition of the cabin.

The one genuine differentiator on screens is free wifi, and only Delta and JetBlue offer it. Seat and Value are where carriers separate, which is why they lead this page.

Where both were priced on the same dates

Every fare is November 8–14, 2026, so a difference between two rows is a difference between two airlines and nothing else. These are economy fares, while the cabin scores above describe the business product — read them as how each airline prices against its competitors, not as what its business seat costs.

Route	Cabin	Icelandair	TAP Air Portugal	Cheaper
BOS → OSL	economy	$477	$626	Icelandair by $149
BOS → ARN	economy	$496	$583	Icelandair by $87
IAD → OSL	economy	$519	$668	Icelandair by $149
IAD → CPH	economy	$542	$647	Icelandair by $105
ORD → OSL	economy	$544	$645	Icelandair by $101
IAD → BCN	economy	$546	$755	Icelandair by $209
BOS → ZRH	economy	$548	$700	Icelandair by $152
ORD → CPH	economy	$549	$647	Icelandair by $98
BOS → CPH	economy	$585	$648	Icelandair by $63
IAD → BER	economy	$1137	$599	TAP Air Portugal by $538
ORD → BER	economy	$1047	$600	TAP Air Portugal by $447
IAD → ZRH	economy	$608	$811	Icelandair by $203
IAD → AMS	economy	$609	$856	Icelandair by $247
BOS → MUC	economy	$618	$751	Icelandair by $133
BOS → FCO	economy	$713	$627	TAP Air Portugal by $86
BOS → FRA	economy	$629	$720	Icelandair by $91
JFK → OSL	economy	$1007	$629	TAP Air Portugal by $378
ORD → ARN	economy	$630	$679	Icelandair by $49
MIA → ARN	economy	$632	$698	Icelandair by $66
MIA → OSL	economy	$646	$751	Icelandair by $105
JFK → ARN	economy	$1116	$647	TAP Air Portugal by $469
IAD → LHR	economy	$692	$647	TAP Air Portugal by $45
BOS → AMS	economy	$649	$671	Icelandair by $22
IAD → DUB	economy	$653	$730	Icelandair by $77
MIA → CPH	economy	$667	$696	Icelandair by $29
ORD → DUB	economy	$673	$697	Icelandair by $24
IAD → MUC	economy	$677	$789	Icelandair by $112
BOS → LHR	economy	$683	$778	Icelandair by $95
MIA → FRA	economy	$688	$882	Icelandair by $194
IAD → FRA	economy	$688	$720	Icelandair by $32
ORD → MUC	economy	$960	$693	TAP Air Portugal by $267
ORD → LHR	economy	$699	$728	Icelandair by $29
MIA → AMS	economy	$878	$713	TAP Air Portugal by $165
ORD → MAN	economy	$729	$884	Icelandair by $155
ORD → FRA	economy	$734	$738	Icelandair by $4
MIA → DUB	economy	$738	$796	Icelandair by $58
ORD → ZRH	economy	$896	$752	TAP Air Portugal by $144
IAD → MAN	economy	$757	$889	Icelandair by $132
MIA → MAN	economy	$763	$828	Icelandair by $65
MIA → BER	economy	$955	$807	TAP Air Portugal by $148
MIA → LHR	economy	$813	$842	Icelandair by $29
BOS → MAN	economy	$838	$864	Icelandair by $26
IAD → AMS	business	$2068	$3959	Icelandair by $1891
IAD → MUC	business	$2136	$3657	Icelandair by $1521
IAD → DUB	business	$2147	$3801	Icelandair by $1654
IAD → BER	business	$2169	$3480	Icelandair by $1311
JFK → DUB	business	$2283	$3581	Icelandair by $1298
JFK → BCN	business	$2290	$3496	Icelandair by $1206
IAD → ARN	business	$2292	$4920	Icelandair by $2628
JFK → CPH	business	$2310	$3950	Icelandair by $1640
JFK → LHR	business	$2338	$3682	Icelandair by $1344
JFK → AMS	business	$2386	$3957	Icelandair by $1571
JFK → MAN	business	$2418	$4347	Icelandair by $1929
IAD → LHR	business	$2443	$4074	Icelandair by $1631
IAD → BCN	business	$2500	$5232	Icelandair by $2732
JFK → MUC	business	$2509	$4765	Icelandair by $2256
IAD → FCO	business	$2530	$4279	Icelandair by $1749
JFK → OSL	business	$2606	$3841	Icelandair by $1235
BOS → CPH	business	$2619	$3421	Icelandair by $802
IAD → CPH	business	$2642	$4692	Icelandair by $2050
IAD → MAN	business	$2691	$4949	Icelandair by $2258
BOS → ZRH	business	$2717	$3427	Icelandair by $710
MIA → ARN	business	$2731	$3782	Icelandair by $1051
MIA → DUB	business	$2734	$4180	Icelandair by $1446
IAD → ZRH	business	$2736	$4155	Icelandair by $1419
BOS → BER	business	$2743	$3475	Icelandair by $732
ORD → CPH	business	$2750	$3671	Icelandair by $921
JFK → BER	business	$2756	$3812	Icelandair by $1056
MIA → OSL	business	$2777	$3868	Icelandair by $1091
BOS → MUC	business	$2786	$3700	Icelandair by $914
MIA → FCO	business	$2796	$3629	Icelandair by $833
BOS → FRA	business	$2797	$3397	Icelandair by $600
ORD → BER	business	$2811	$4256	Icelandair by $1445
IAD → OSL	business	$2815	$4707	Icelandair by $1892
IAD → FRA	business	$2816	$3737	Icelandair by $921
MIA → BER	business	$2861	$3864	Icelandair by $1003
BOS → LHR	business	$2913	$3810	Icelandair by $897
MIA → AMS	business	$2917	$4195	Icelandair by $1278
BOS → ARN	business	$2936	$3762	Icelandair by $826
BOS → DUB	business	$2938	$3421	Icelandair by $483
BOS → BCN	business	$3016	$3788	Icelandair by $772
BOS → MAN	business	$3032	$4718	Icelandair by $1686
ORD → DUB	business	$3034	$4096	Icelandair by $1062
ORD → MAN	business	$3038	$5336	Icelandair by $2298
BOS → OSL	business	$3060	$3262	Icelandair by $202
MIA → LHR	business	$3082	$3696	Icelandair by $614
MIA → MAN	business	$3091	$4345	Icelandair by $1254
MIA → MUC	business	$3105	$4857	Icelandair by $1752
BOS → AMS	business	$3117	$4439	Icelandair by $1322
ORD → FRA	business	$3194	$4062	Icelandair by $868
MIA → LIS	business	$3221	$4784	Icelandair by $1563
IAD → LIS	business	$3233	$6081	Icelandair by $2848
ORD → LHR	business	$3249	$4238	Icelandair by $989
MIA → CPH	business	$3650	$3270	TAP Air Portugal by $380
ORD → ARN	business	$3281	$5197	Icelandair by $1916
ORD → OSL	business	$3327	$4868	Icelandair by $1541
ORD → AMS	business	$3365	$4995	Icelandair by $1630
MIA → ZRH	business	$3386	$4573	Icelandair by $1187
MIA → FRA	business	$3466	$3416	TAP Air Portugal by $50
MIA → BCN	business	$3425	$3804	Icelandair by $379
BOS → FCO	business	$3710	$3545	TAP Air Portugal by $165
ORD → BCN	business	$3722	$5166	Icelandair by $1444
ORD → ZRH	business	$3883	$4786	Icelandair by $903
ORD → MUC	business	$3953	$4725	Icelandair by $772
ORD → LIS	business	$4303	$6029	Icelandair by $1726

What happens if the aircraft swaps

Both carriers are paying-the-same-fare-either-way propositions on some frames. The worst product each one flies:

Icelandair

737 MAX / 757 (Saga Premium)

Seat: 0/10
IFE: 4/10
Lounge & bags: 10/10
Value: 10/10
Product score: 6/10

TAP Air Portugal

A321LR · flown by Jon

Seat: 5/10
IFE: 8/10
Lounge & bags: 10/10
Value: 8/10
Product score: 7.8/10

Icelandair: Saga Premium is a wide recliner, not a lie-flat business class: roughly 20 inches wide with about 5 inches of recline. Closer to US domestic first class than to a transatlantic business seat, and the shorter Iceland sectors are what it is built for.

TAP Air Portugal: Solo throne seats in the 1-1 rows; the 2-2 rows require stepping over a neighbor.

Common questions

Is Icelandair or TAP Air Portugal better to Europe?: TAP Air Portugal scores 8.5/10 against Icelandair at 6/10 on seat, screens, lounge and fare. On the four dimensions we can verify, Icelandair wins 1 and TAP Air Portugal wins 2. Service and food are not scored here because they cannot be read off a spec sheet.
Which is cheaper, Icelandair or TAP Air Portugal?: On the 105 routes where both were priced for the same week (November 8–14, 2026), Icelandair was cheaper on 92 and TAP Air Portugal on 13. Every pair of fares is the same departure and return date in the same cabin, so the difference is the airline rather than the dates or the cabin.
Does the aircraft change the answer?: Yes. TAP Air Portugal scores 8/10 on the A330-900neo and 5/10 on the A321LR. Check the equipment on your date before deciding.
Has Jon flown either of these?: TAP Air Portugal, in business on a Europe route. Icelandair has not been flown, so nothing here claims firsthand experience of its cabin.

Deal alerts on Icelandair and TAP Air Portugal

Icelandair or TAP Air Portugal, whichever drops first

Icelandair carried a $0 median premium in our grid and TAP Air Portugal $20; the cheaper of the two changes route by route, and neither is cheapest every week. An alert from your airport catches whichever falls under the field, which is a better bet than picking one airline in advance.

I have used Going for six years, and it is how I hear about a fare below the floor before it is gone.

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