Atlantica - 01.11.2000, Page 9

A T L A N T I C A 7
Sigurdur Helgason, President and CEO, Icelandair
ICELANDAIR IN-FLIGHT MAGAZINE
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This year the Icelanders have celebrated the 1000th
anniversary of the first voyages across the Atlantic
Ocean, which were led by Leifur Eiríksson who
sailed from Iceland to Greenland, and on to the
shores of North America, in an open Viking ship. As
a company dedicated to offering travellers the same
passage, in conjunction with the more comfortable
B757!, Icelandair has been an active partner in these
efforts.
We have seen a surge of interest in the Vikings and
their role in world history. This year the Smithsonian
exhibition in Washington DC, called “Vikings: The
North Atlantic Saga”, attracted a record number of
visitors, and the world press, including Time
Magazine, Der Spiegel and National Geographic,
has covered these early voyages of the Icelanders in
massive front-page stories.
On the occasion of the opening of the Smithsonian
exhibition, US President Bill Clinton said of the Icelandic explorers: “There was some-
thing profoundly heroic about their desire and their ability to make the crossing – to
go across the Atlantic to Vinland was as earth-shaking and expansive an achievement
as the most expansive, ambitious space launch today.” He added that, “All Americans
should know more about this fascinating early chapter of our history”.
It has been an honour and a pleasure for me to chair the Icelandic government
organisation, the Leifur Eiríksson Millennium Commission of Iceland, responsible for
this year’s 300 commemorative events.
In the thousand years that have passed since the Atlantic was crossed for the very first
time, transport technology has been repeatedly revolutionised, and now travel has
become a way of life for many people. And as we enter a new millennium the
information revolution is changing the industry yet again.
Iceland is a world leader in the use of the Internet, and Icelandair is an aggressive
player in the game, determined to use its strength to offer solutions for the 21st-
century traveller. Our newly formed start-up company, Destal Communications,
develops and operates travel destination portals on the web – a unique service where
customers can get custom-made, personal information on all things related to their
destination, before, during and after their visit, as well as organising, ordering and
buying individual travel packages – or even just one lunch during their whole trip!
Iceland will be the first destination serviced by Destal Communications. Go to ice-
landtotal.com and have a look.
In certain ways the airline industry has known and used e-commerce for over 30 years.
Icelandair, in common with other leading airlines and the travel industry as a whole,
has been using electronic technology for bookings and selling its services for decades.
Destal Communications is one of the many indications that Icelandair enjoys facing
the challenges of the new millennium, just as Leifur Eiríksson took on the challenges
of the last one.
Different Millennium
Challenges
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