Icelandair Retires Special Boeing 757

Icelandair is moving ahead with its fleet renewal efforts and has said goodbye to a special Boeing 757.

TF-FIR, a 757-200, has been flying across the Icelandair operation for a lengthy period. Now, it has been formally retired, but the jet was different from other 757s in the business.

In 2017, Icelandair decided to introduce a special livery on the 757 to celebrate its 80th birthday. The full-body livery, named Vatnajökull, has become a favourite among many around the world, featuring light blues and a glacier at its heart.

TF-FIR, thanks to available data, is over 30 years old and was first delivered to Iberia in July 1994, where it flew with them for about half a decade, at times also flying with Air Europa, Aeromar Airlines, and Avianca Colombia.

However, for the most part, the aircraft operated with Icelandair serving their network on a day-to-day basis, its livery making it an iconic part of the fleet and now an aircraft and livery that’ll be sorely missed.

An Icelandair Boeing 757-200 – Photo: Thomas Arnoux

As of September 22, 2025, the aircraft was pulled from service with the 757 operating a flight through to Kansas City (MCI), where the end of an era will truly take place.

Icelandair Fleet Renewal Efforts

The retirement of this 757 is part of the company’s broader efforts to transition to newer and more efficient aircraft.

With the retirement comes the move towards Airbus to power part of the next generation of the fleet alongside the 737 MAX, an ongoing renewal with new aircraft continuing to arrive as the months pass.

Away from the 757 retirement, Icelandair also confirmed in May that it would bid farewell to the Boeing 767 by the end of the 2020s and therefore transition to flying only narrowbody aircraft.

The retirement of the 767 will also mark the arrival of the A321XLR, which is expected to begin in 2029, pending no further delays.

Between the arrival of the XLR and now, the airline will continue utilising the A321LR, a more modest alternative but still one that has a longer range than the base model and, as a result, can offer more punch across the network, especially for transcontinental markets.

The single-aisle aircraft from Airbus will help replace the Boeing 757s and mark the continued shift towards single-aisle aircraft in a bid to become more efficient and streamlined.