10.04.2006
Half a billion passengers

Copenhagen Airport reached a milestone on Sunday, 9 April 2006, when the number of passengers passed half a billion since the airport opened in 1925. That is more than the entire population of the EU. It all began on a couple of grass fields, which have later grown into the largest air traffic hub in Scandinavia.

Copenhagen Airport is one of the oldest airports in the world, and the number of passengers has grown year by year since 1925. Today, some 55,000 passengers pass through the airport every day, year round, and on Sunday, 9 April 2006, the total number of passengers reached half a billion – 500,000,000 people – more than the entire population of the EU.

The early years During the first years, the airport at Kastrup only consisted of some grass landing strips, a couple of hangars and a terminal built of wood. There were only operations during the summer and normally only when the weather was good as both the pilots and passengers would sit in the open air. During the opening year, just over 5,000 passengers used the airport. Gradually, larger aircraft were used, with passengers and pilots enjoying the comfort of closed cabins. At the same time, the airport’s radio and weather service was developed so that flights could be operated all year round.

This boosted traffic, and in 1939 the annual number of passengers had grown to 72,000. In that year, the airport opened its new, modern terminal designed by Architect Vilhelm Lauritzen.

Third-largest in Europe

World War II and the German occupation of Denmark led to a sharp fall in passenger numbers, but growth resumed right after the war. Already in 1946, the first intercontinental route out of Copenhagen was opened: American Overseas Airlines to New York; and during that summer, airlines from eight different nations operated flights to Copenhagen Airport, which had by then become the third largest in Europe, and passenger numbers had risen to 230,000, four times the number a year earlier.

In 1954, SAS opened its first polar route to Los Angeles, and two years later the annual passenger number passed one million. A major expansion programme was initiated that year to make Copenhagen Airport the most modern airport in the world. The runways were extended and were provided with sophisticated technical equipment, and in 1957 the first jet aircraft landed at the airport.

More terminals

Traffic continued to grow in the jet age, and package-tour passengers began to travel by air. In 1960, a new airport terminal (the present Terminal 2) was opened, and a year later the passenger number reached two million.

The new terminal soon became too small, and in 1969 another major expansion programme was initiated: Domestic traffic was moved to a new terminal (Terminal 1) and the international terminal was expanded. A new air traffic control tower was brought into use together with an additional runway, so that take-offs and landings could take place at the same time. When the expansion programme was completed in 1972, the passenger number had grown to more than eight million a year.   The growth continued up through the 1970s, although it was subdued somewhat by the oil crisis in the early part of the decade. In 1979, the airport rounded 10 million passengers,

but shortly after, “the belt-tightening 80s” set in with an atmosphere of crisis and widespread unemployment, resulting in a drop in passenger numbers for the first time since World War II. Not until in 1985 did the airport again pass the 10 million passenger mark.

20 million passengers

The passenger number grew in the last half of the 1980s to almost 13 million passengers a year, and in spite of the downturn in connection with the Gulf War in 1991, the passenger number continued to grow in the 1990s. In 1995, the airport rounded 15 million passengers and two years later 17 million. In 1998, the new delta-shaped Terminal 3 was opened, with its railway station and parking facilities.

In the early part of the new millennium, the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001 and later the War in Iraq and the SARS epidemic in Asia had an adverse impact on passenger numbers, but growth resumed in 2004, and last year the number of passengers reached 20 million. With a growing number of airlines and services to more than 130 destinations, Copenhagen Airport is retaining its position as Scandinavia’s largest air traffic hub.