Which is often confused with Reykjavik domestic airport which only serves domestic flights is located on the Reykjanes peninsula in the south west of Iceland.
It mainly serves international flights except for a few domestic connections. Keflavik airport is the largest airport in iceland.
The services at the airport have increased and include numerous car rentals, tax free shopping ( which is worth in Iceland due to the high taxes on tobacco and alcohol). So if you arrive there we recommend to make your tax free shopping at the airport before going on your way around the ring road.
A great way to relax after a flight is to go directly from the airport to the blue lagoon for a relaxing bath before making your way to Reykjavik. It is about 50 meters from Iceland´s capital and the drive takes about 45 minutes. The airport is mainly used by the Icelandic airlines wow air and Iceland air.
the airport was built by the United States military during World War II, as a replacement for a small British landing strip at Garður to the north. It consisted of two separate two-runway airfields, built simultaneously just 4 km apart. Patterson Field in the south-east opened in 1942 despite being partly incomplete. It was named after a young pilot who died in Iceland. Meeks Field to the north-west opened on March 23, 1943. It was named after another young pilot, George Meeks, who died on the Reykjavík airfield. Patterson Field was closed after the war, but Meeks Field and the adjoining structures were returned to Iceland's control and were renamed Naval Air Station Keflavik, for the nearby town of Keflavík. In 1951, the U.S. military returned to the airport under a defense agreement between Iceland and the U.S. signed on 5 May 1951.
The terminal is named after Leif Erikson who was the first European to arrive in North America (Flugstöð Leifs Eiríkssonar , "Leif Erikson Air Terminal"). It was opened in April 1987 and separated the airport's civil traffic from the military base. It was later extended with the opening of the South Building in 2001 (not a separate terminal) to comply with the requirements of the Schengen Agreement. The North Building was later enlarged and finished in 2007. The terminal has duty-free stores in the departure and arrival lounges. In 2016, the current terminal was expanded. The expansion added 7 gates. There are also plans to add a third runway.