08.05.2006
Delta and Air Berlin take off from Copenhagen
Today, Tuesday 2 May, Copenhagen Airport welcomes two new airlines, an event that will further strengthen the airport’s position as the largest air traffic hub in Scandinavia.
With Delta Air Lines’ new route to Atlanta, Copenhagen Airport will be the starting point of the only non-stop service between Scandinavia and south-eastern United States. From Atlanta, which has the world’s largest airport, there are connections on Delta to 153 cities in the USA, the Caribbean, South America and Canada.
The first flight for Atlanta left Copenhagen Airport’s gate C28 at 11 am with 180 passengers on board. Before departure, the passengers and 80 invited guests, including US Ambassador to Denmark James Cain and Mayor of Atlanta Shirley Franklin, attended an opening ceremony for the new service at the gate.
Going on a holiday by car and going to work
Among the first passengers on the new route were Lena Johansen and Mogens Steen Johansen, flying via Atlanta to San Francisco, from where they will be travelling by car for a month in the western United States. “It’s something special to be on the first flight, although we didn’t know it was the first flight when we booked our trip,” said Mrs Johansen.
Among the passengers were also a group of 13 Danish seamen headed for Mobile, Alabama to sign on for work on board a ship. The seamen travel to and from Mobile at seven-week intervals, so the new service is a major advantage for them.
“We used to have to leave Copenhagen as early as 6 am and fly via Amsterdam. The new service makes our trip much easier. From Atlanta, there is only one and a half hours by air to Mobile,” said one of the men, Hans Jensen.
New opportunities
Copenhagen Airports President and CEO Niels Boserup sees great opportunities in the new non-stop service, which will carry passengers from Scandinavia to the southern United States in less than ten hours.
“This is an important day for Copenhagen Airport and our employees, but today’s event is even more important to our region, which will now have a new direct connection to the USA, a vital market for us. Eighty per cent of the US population can be reached in less than two hours’ flight from Atlanta,” said Boserup.
Three low-cost services
In addition to the new intercontinental route, three new low-cost routes are on scheduled to open out of Copenhagen Airport: On 2 May when Germany’s second-largest airline, Air Berlin, launched new services to Dusseldorf and Berlin. A third Air Berlin service – to Hamburg – will be inaugurated on Friday.
Air Berlin has a large route network in Europe, and in addition to the three non-stop services, the airline also offers passengers out of Copenhagen a number of onward travel options via Dusseldorf or Berlin to destinations in Spain, Austria, Italy and Switzerland.
Air Berlin has two daily flights from Copenhagen to Dusseldorf Monday through Friday, and one daily flight on weekends. The airline also offers one daily flight to Berlin, except on Saturdays, and one daily flight to Hamburg on Fridays and Sundays.
