22.12.2008
Copenhagen Airport to become smoke-free starting from the New Year

Copenhagen Airport is closing down its smoking cabins and introducing a smoking ban in the airport terminals starting from the New Year. This is being done to improve the indoor climate and to follow the trend in Danish society and among European airports, where a smoke-free environment is considered ever more important.

Since new smoking legislation came into force in August 2007, CPH has worked to gradually make the airport smoke-free in order to improve the indoor climate for passengers. After having allowed smoking in a number of smoking cabinets and smoking areas in the departure halls and the baggage reclaim area, CPH now goes the whole length and is now introducing a full ban and the airport will be entirely smoke-free from the New Year.

“We can see that there is a trend towards completely smoke-free environments in Denmark as well as internationally, and we are therefore going to remove the last smoking cabinets at the airport. This will clearly improve the indoor climate for passengers,” said Susanne Frank, Passenger Services Manager at Copenhagen Airports.

Careful evaluation
The transition to a smoke-free airport is being made after careful evaluation and a number of feasibility studies that have shown that, although passengers are quite tolerant about the smoking areas, they but nevertheless expect the airport to become smoke-free in the foreseeable future. 

“We have asked our passengers, and their answers were quite clear: Many of them accept smoking in designated areas, but the majority show an understanding for a smoke-free airport with all the benefits that entails,” said Susanne Frank.

New seating and rest areas
Smokers and non-smokers alike have discovered that the air in the vicinity of the airport’s smoking cabinets has been less than perfect. This will change from the turn of the year when the cabins will be removed and the smoking areas will be turned into seating and rest areas for passengers.

“We do realise that some passengers will frown on us during the transition phase because we are eliminating the smoking facilities in the terminals. However, the Danish Smoking Act from 2007 was well received by the Danish population and we hope they will also appreciate the benefits of the change here at Copenhagen Airport rather than focus on the disadvantages," said Susanne Frank emphasising that when the indoor smoking facilities are eliminated, outdoor conditions for smokers will be improved.

The improved conditions apply to departing passengers before they go through Security and arriving passengers after they have reclaimed their baggage.