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Keflavik International Airport (KEF): arrival & transit guide

What to expect landing at Keflavik International Airport in Reykjavik, Iceland: the arrival flow, transit rules, and onward transport.

Keflavik International Airport, the Leifur Eiriksson Air Terminal, is Iceland's only major international gateway and runs as a single terminal building. It has no separate international transit area, which matters more here than at many hubs: every passenger arriving from outside the Schengen area clears Icelandic passport control to enter the Schengen zone, even one connecting straight onward to another Schengen country.

Arriving on a flight from within the Schengen area, there is no passport control at all; you go straight to baggage claim. Arriving from outside Schengen, EU and EEA passport holders can use the automated e-gates, while everyone else uses the staffed immigration lanes, and whether your own passport also needs a visa for that stay follows the shared Schengen list rather than an Iceland-specific one.

A connection that stays entirely within the Schengen area needs no second passport check once you have cleared it on arrival. A connection from outside Schengen onward to another non-Schengen destination, or vice versa, still means clearing Icelandic immigration on the way in, so build real buffer time into a short layover here rather than assuming an airside transfer.

Outside the terminal, the Flybus and other coach services run the roughly 45-minute route into Reykjavik, alongside taxis and rental cars.

All passports for Iceland