CPH traffic: More direct flights, fewer transfer passengers
Autumn holiday travellers from Denmark and southern Sweden prefer taking direct flights. A total of 958,394 passengers flew out of Copenhagen Airport during the autumn holiday period, 12-22 October. A total of 2,614,672 passengers passed through the airport in October, a drop of 2%.
Spain and Greece were the favourite destinations for the 2017 autumn holiday season, and more passengers took direct flights.
During the busy travel days of the holiday, a total of 778,312 passengers took direct flights to their destinations, an increase of 2%. The number of transfer passengers fell by 13% to 191.783.
“The numbers for this year's autumn holiday travel reflect a trend we’ve seen all through 2017: more passengers flying out of Copenhagen are taking direct flights to their destinations, while the number of transfer passengers is falling,” said Copenhagen Airport CEO Thomas Woldbye.
2,614,672 travellers
The 1.2% increase in the number of locally departing passengers in October was not enough to offset the 12.7% decline in the number of transfer passengers stopping over at Copenhagen en route to their final destination. SAS is responsible for 82% of transfer passenger traffic at Copenhagen Airport.
This brings the total passenger count at Copenhagen Airport in October to 2,614,672, or 2% fewer than last year’s busy tenth month.
Many new routes
The new winter programme gives travellers from CPH six new direct seasonal routes as well as several new year-round routes to choose from.
“The winter season has new routes to the sun, to the snow and to culture: the beaches of Tenerife, Fuerteventura or Agadir; the skiing destination of Tromsø in Norway or Östersund in Sweden; or perhaps Kiev or New Delhi for a cultural experience. And starting in May of next year, we’ll have direct service from Copenhagen to Hong Kong, so there’s a lot to look forward to,” said Mr Woldbye.
Low-cost travel driving passenger growth
Overall passenger growth for 2017 to date is 1.2%. The top-three carriers in terms of passenger growth in 2017 are Norwegian at 22%, Ryanair at 9% and Primera Air at 7%.
London remains the absolute top destination. Spain’s growing popularity has made Màlaga a regular top-ten destination.
In fact, the sunny city is this year’s fastest growing top-ten destination out of Copenhagen, with a 13.2% rise in passenger numbers. During the first ten months of 2017, a total of 499,063 passengers flew from CPH to Màlaga.
