30.05.2007
Cruise season opens with new check-in facilities

The number of cruise passengers will beat all previous records this year. Copenhagen Airport is where passengers transfer between sea and air transport, and the airport just saw its first peak day for cruise passengers. It was also the first time Copenhagen Airport used a hangar to make sure this peak traffic was handled quickly and smoothly.
 
Copenhagen Airport has seen a surge in the number of cruise passengers in recent years. Passengers from these cruise vessels typically arrive at the airport in large groups, with lots of baggage and a long time before their flight departs. This makes it necessary for the airport and airlines to coordinate check-in procedures to ensure a smooth flow of traffic.

Copenhagen Airports has been working together with the airlines since October 2006 to find a solution that allows traffic to be handled more flexibly and quickly for both cruise passengers and the other passengers in the terminals.  

Quick check-in in a refurbished hangar

Copenhagen Airports took an old hangar from World War II and rebuilt and refurbished it, setting up special dedicated check-in and baggage sorting facilities for cruise passengers. This allows passengers to check in and then spend the hours until their flight departs on sightseeing or shopping in downtown Copenhagen. Hangar 145 has 16 check-in desks and will be used on peak days for cruise passengers.
 
"An extraordinary effort is required on the part of both the airport and the airlines to handle the roughly 340,000 cruise passengers per year. As a result, Copenhagen Airport has taken the initiative in setting up excellent new check-in facilities in Hangar 145 for the benefit of both cruise passengers and the other passengers in the terminals, who will see smoother passenger flows during the busy summer period. We have enjoyed a favourable and active collaboration with the airlines that have decided to check in their cruise passengers this way," said Susanne Frank, passenger manager at Copenhagen Airports A/S.

Northern Europe’s largest cruise port

According to Frank, Copenhagen has grown to become northern Europe’s largest cruise port in recent years, both in number of port calls and in the number of ships that use Copenhagen as their home port. To be the home port is especially attractive for a city, as it means that passengers both board and disembark the cruise ships there and typically spend more time in the city.
 
"It is the airport’s finely meshed route network – not least to the United States – that forms the basis for Copenhagen’s home port position. In this way, Copenhagen Airport is supporting Copenhagen’s strong position as home port and is very important in the continuing growth in numbers of cruise passengers choosing to travel via Copenhagen," says Frank, who is also a member of the board of directors for the Cruise Copenhagen Network.

Targeted collaboration

The year’s handling of cruise traffic is an example of the targeted collaboration between the airport and the airlines that was formed after last summer and which will also benefit passengers at Copenhagen Airport.
 
“I think it's a highly efficient way of handling cruise passengers. It was easy to find our baggage. There were carts available for our baggage, and it was easy for us to find our way around the terminal. The staff were also very, very helpful,” said a cruise passenger from the eastern US state of Virginia.   
 
Originally built in 1942, Hangar 145 has since been relocated and refurbished. However, its wooden roof trusses remain the original ones from the Second World War.