During the last four months Copenhagen Airport has welcomed six new European routes, three intercontinental routes and five new carriers. Among these are Air Berlin to Berlin and Düsseldorf, Air Baltic to Kaliningrad, Delta Air Lines to Atlanta and Continental to New York.

Opportunity for growth

The number of airline passengers between Denmark and the USA is setting new records after the two new carriers – Delta Air Lines and Continental Airlines – entered the market. Scheduled flights between Copenhagen Airport and the United States carried 79,000 passengers in June, which was 32% more than June last year, and the highest number of passengers ever. Many passengers who used to travel to the USA via other large European airports now choose to fly directly from CPH. This strengthens Copenhagen’s position as a European air traffic hub.

Growth in LCC traffic

And the inaugurations continue during the fall of this year. We have the pleasure of welcoming three new low cost entrances. Both Norwegian and Sterling will inaugurate routes to Poland which will be the first routes from Copenhagen to Poland operated by LCC’s. Sterling will fly to Krakow from September 19th and Norwegian will start flying to Warsaw on October 29th. In addition, Sterling will start to operate on the most important domestic route – Aalborg from September 18th. With these three new low cost routes the growth in LCC traffic continues at Copenhagen Airport. Hence, in the first half of 2006 the LCC share of the total traffic constituted 13.3%.

One of the reasons to all these new route inaugurations are a result of the governmental passenger tax being reduced by 50% in 2006 and abolished altogether in 2007 making the CPH tariffs even more attractive to carriers along with the fact that CPH has the largest catchment area in Scandinavia consisting of both Denmark and Southern Sweden.

A new central security checkpoint

At Copenhagen Airport we are constantly investing in our airport infrastructure to be prepared for the above mentioned traffic growth. Hence, a new central security checkpoint will be established during this fall. The new security checkpoint will be located on the1st floor of the Arcade with access from both Terminal 2 and Terminal 3 via Skywalks. Hence, the new checkpoint will replace the three existing checkpoints in Terminal 2, Terminal 3 and the Arcade (ground level) respectively. The establishment of this new central security checkpoint will cost DKK 150 million and as regards to this it is worth noting that the CPH tariffs are fixed for the next three years. The decision to invest in this new security checkpoint comes on top of recent years’ large investments to comply with stricter regulatory requirements to airport security. The new checkpoint will be ready for the busy summer traffic of 2007.  

Greater capacity and increased flexibility

By establishing a central security checkpoint, Copenhagen Airport will achieve greater capacity and increased flexibility. Hence, eliminating the challenge of flow constraints in the respective terminals as passengers will then automatically distribute themselves more equally in the ‘tracks’ available. “We wish to continue to provide good service and quality to our passengers without compromising security. As a result of the stricter regulatory requirements, we consider it necessary to build a new central security checkpoint, which will be prepared for some of the requirements we may face in the future,” said Mogens Kornbo, Vice President, Copenhagen Airports A/S.

We would like to welcome you on our stand S13 at Routes in Dubai to tell you more about your business opportunities at Copenhagen Airport as well as our investment plans for the airport.

If you have any questions or comments to this newsletter please contact marketing coordinator Tina Bendix on tina.bendix@cph.dk or +45 3231 2018 or please visit http://www.scandinaviashub.com/