Is Icelandair or Turkish Airlines better to Europe?

Turkish Airlines scores 8.8/10 against Icelandair at 6/10 on seat, screens, lounge and fare. On the four dimensions we can verify, Icelandair wins 1 and Turkish Airlines wins 2. Service and food are not scored here because they cannot be read off a spec sheet.

Which is cheaper, Icelandair or Turkish Airlines?

On the 103 routes where both were priced for the same week (November 8–14, 2026), Icelandair was cheaper on 91 and Turkish Airlines on 12. 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. Turkish Airlines scores 8/10 on the 787-9 / A350-900 and 5/10 on the 777-300ER (legacy). Check the equipment on your date before deciding.

Has Jon flown either of these?

Neither, so this page is product facts and fares only. Any review we publish of either will be labeled Researched until that changes.

Head to head

Icelandair vs Turkish Airlines

Turkish Airlines scores 8.8/10 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.

Icelandair

737 MAX / 757 (Saga Premium)

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

Turkish Airlines

787-9 / A350-900

Seat: 8/10
IFE: 8/10
Lounge & bags: 10/10
Value: 9/10
Product score: 8.8/10

Dimension by dimension

Seat: Turkish Airlines
0/10 on the 737 MAX / 757 (Saga Premium) against 8/10 on the 787-9 / A350-900.
IFE: Turkish Airlines
Screens, connectivity and power: 4/10 against 8/10.
Lounge & bags: level
What the fare includes before you board: 10/10 against 10/10.
Value: Icelandair
Median premium over the cheapest carrier on the same route: 10/10 against 9/10.

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	Turkish Airlines	Cheaper
IAD → BCN	economy	$546	$810	Icelandair by $264
IAD → ZRH	economy	$608	$759	Icelandair by $151
DEN → CPH	economy	$632	$847	Icelandair by $215
DEN → HEL	economy	$640	$883	Icelandair by $243
ORD → CDG	economy	$649	$861	Icelandair by $212
ORD → AMS	economy	$655	$847	Icelandair by $192
DEN → ZRH	economy	$678	$740	Icelandair by $62
IAD → HEL	economy	$686	$785	Icelandair by $99
IAD → FRA	economy	$688	$848	Icelandair by $160
DEN → LHR	economy	$698	$966	Icelandair by $268
SEA → ZRH	economy	$711	$831	Icelandair by $120
DEN → ARN	economy	$713	$782	Icelandair by $69
DEN → CDG	economy	$723	$987	Icelandair by $264
ORD → MAN	economy	$729	$919	Icelandair by $190
DEN → AMS	economy	$729	$862	Icelandair by $133
SEA → DUB	economy	$737	$902	Icelandair by $165
DEN → DUB	economy	$739	$916	Icelandair by $177
IAD → MAN	economy	$757	$938	Icelandair by $181
ORD → ZRH	economy	$896	$759	Turkish Airlines by $137
DEN → MUC	economy	$797	$818	Icelandair by $21
ORD → MUC	economy	$960	$798	Turkish Airlines by $162
DEN → BER	economy	$907	$799	Turkish Airlines by $108
DEN → MAN	economy	$820	$942	Icelandair by $122
DEN → FRA	economy	$844	$836	Turkish Airlines by $8
BOS → MAN	economy	$838	$924	Icelandair by $86
SEA → LGW	economy	$842	$948	Icelandair by $106
ORD → BER	economy	$1047	$848	Turkish Airlines by $199
IAD → BER	economy	$1137	$848	Turkish Airlines by $289
SEA → BER	economy	$1227	$868	Turkish Airlines by $359
SEA → FCO	economy	$925	$880	Turkish Airlines by $45
SEA → AMS	economy	$954	$883	Turkish Airlines by $71
MIA → HEL	economy	$964	$907	Turkish Airlines by $57
SEA → MAN	economy	$919	$1002	Icelandair by $83
SEA → BCN	economy	$936	$972	Icelandair by $36
SEA → HEL	economy	$984	$943	Turkish Airlines by $41
SEA → LIS	economy	$1122	$1002	Turkish Airlines by $120
IAD → BER	business	$2169	$5947	Icelandair by $3778
IAD → ARN	business	$2292	$5612	Icelandair by $3320
JFK → AMS	business	$2386	$4716	Icelandair by $2330
IAD → HEL	business	$2504	$6858	Icelandair by $4354
JFK → MUC	business	$2509	$3785	Icelandair by $1276
JFK → HEL	business	$2604	$4803	Icelandair by $2199
JFK → OSL	business	$2606	$4707	Icelandair by $2101
IAD → CPH	business	$2642	$5681	Icelandair by $3039
IAD → MAN	business	$2691	$5978	Icelandair by $3287
IAD → ZRH	business	$2736	$6149	Icelandair by $3413
BOS → BER	business	$2743	$3857	Icelandair by $1114
ORD → CPH	business	$2750	$4461	Icelandair by $1711
MIA → OSL	business	$2777	$4977	Icelandair by $2200
BOS → FRA	business	$2797	$4692	Icelandair by $1895
ORD → BER	business	$2811	$3957	Icelandair by $1146
DEN → BER	business	$2811	$6182	Icelandair by $3371
IAD → OSL	business	$2815	$5657	Icelandair by $2842
ORD → CDG	business	$2852	$4322	Icelandair by $1470
MIA → BER	business	$2861	$4897	Icelandair by $2036
BOS → ARN	business	$2936	$4792	Icelandair by $1856
BOS → DUB	business	$2938	$4486	Icelandair by $1548
DEN → DUB	business	$2998	$7546	Icelandair by $4548
BOS → BCN	business	$3016	$5171	Icelandair by $2155
BOS → HEL	business	$3026	$4303	Icelandair by $1277
BOS → MAN	business	$3032	$4658	Icelandair by $1626
ORD → DUB	business	$3034	$4076	Icelandair by $1042
ORD → MAN	business	$3038	$4388	Icelandair by $1350
BOS → OSL	business	$3060	$5827	Icelandair by $2767
DEN → AMS	business	$3070	$6061	Icelandair by $2991
MIA → MAN	business	$3091	$5298	Icelandair by $2207
BOS → AMS	business	$3117	$3366	Icelandair by $249
ORD → FRA	business	$3194	$4017	Icelandair by $823
IAD → LIS	business	$3233	$5957	Icelandair by $2724
ORD → LHR	business	$3249	$4432	Icelandair by $1183
ORD → ARN	business	$3281	$4392	Icelandair by $1111
ORD → OSL	business	$3327	$4437	Icelandair by $1110
ORD → AMS	business	$3365	$4148	Icelandair by $783
SEA → ARN	business	$3381	$4776	Icelandair by $1395
SEA → DUB	business	$3384	$4486	Icelandair by $1102
SEA → MAN	business	$3390	$4900	Icelandair by $1510
SEA → OSL	business	$3427	$5677	Icelandair by $2250
SEA → CPH	business	$3450	$5009	Icelandair by $1559
DEN → OSL	business	$3456	$6647	Icelandair by $3191
DEN → FCO	business	$3467	$6401	Icelandair by $2934
DEN → CPH	business	$3472	$6451	Icelandair by $2979
DEN → FRA	business	$3491	$6952	Icelandair by $3461
DEN → CDG	business	$3498	$6448	Icelandair by $2950
ORD → HEL	business	$3543	$4403	Icelandair by $860
SEA → FRA	business	$3546	$5082	Icelandair by $1536
SEA → CDG	business	$3552	$4748	Icelandair by $1196
DEN → ARN	business	$3561	$6792	Icelandair by $3231
DEN → MUC	business	$3618	$6436	Icelandair by $2818
DEN → ZRH	business	$3651	$6844	Icelandair by $3193
BOS → FCO	business	$3710	$4961	Icelandair by $1251
ORD → BCN	business	$3722	$5997	Icelandair by $2275
SEA → FCO	business	$3802	$5821	Icelandair by $2019
SEA → AMS	business	$3815	$4506	Icelandair by $691
ORD → ZRH	business	$3883	$3929	Icelandair by $46
SEA → HEL	business	$3893	$5643	Icelandair by $1750
SEA → LIS	business	$3946	$6716	Icelandair by $2770
ORD → MUC	business	$3953	$3975	Icelandair by $22
DEN → LIS	business	$4017	$6166	Icelandair by $2149
SEA → MUC	business	$4035	$5365	Icelandair by $1330
ORD → LIS	business	$4303	$4507	Icelandair by $204
DEN → HEL	business	$4404	$6368	Icelandair by $1964
SEA → ZRH	business	$4814	$6079	Icelandair by $1265
SEA → BER	business	$4861	$5047	Icelandair by $186

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

Turkish Airlines

777-300ER (legacy)

Seat: 5/10
IFE: 8/10
Lounge & bags: 10/10
Value: 9/10
Product score: 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.

Turkish Airlines: The cabin the retrofit is replacing, on the aircraft Turkish flies most from the US.

Common questions

Is Icelandair or Turkish Airlines better to Europe?: Turkish Airlines scores 8.8/10 against Icelandair at 6/10 on seat, screens, lounge and fare. On the four dimensions we can verify, Icelandair wins 1 and Turkish Airlines wins 2. Service and food are not scored here because they cannot be read off a spec sheet.
Which is cheaper, Icelandair or Turkish Airlines?: On the 103 routes where both were priced for the same week (November 8–14, 2026), Icelandair was cheaper on 91 and Turkish Airlines on 12. 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. Turkish Airlines scores 8/10 on the 787-9 / A350-900 and 5/10 on the 777-300ER (legacy). Check the equipment on your date before deciding.
Has Jon flown either of these?: Neither, so this page is product facts and fares only. Any review we publish of either will be labeled Researched until that changes.

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