10 July busiest day ever at Copenhagen Airport
With 104,609 passengers passing through the terminals, Monday 10 July was the busiest day ever in the history of Copenhagen Airport. A full 3 million passengers went through the airport in July, with more choosing to fly long haul for their summer holiday this year, particularly to the USA and Asia.
While the rain hammered down in Denmark, there was extra pressure on the terminals at Copenhagen Airport through June and July.
Last year’s record for the highest number of passengers on one day was beaten three times in July alone. The previous record of 104,203 passengers, set on 18 July 2016, was overtaken with 104,238 on 17 July, 104,310 on 3 July and, not least, the new record of 104,609 on Monday 10 July.
There were a full ten days in July when more than 100,000 passengers passed through the terminals in one day. By way of comparison, this only happened on five days in the whole of 2016.
“It’s not all that many years ago that 100,000 passengers would have been hard to believe. Now it’s the norm on a busy summer day,” explains Copenhagen Airport’s CEO, Thomas Woldbye.
“This means that the airport, the airlines, the police passport controls and the ground handlers, which are responsible for baggage handling, check-in and boarding, are staffed and ready to make sure all the passengers get through the airport and the flights depart,” says Thomas Woldbye.
He emphasises the big effort everyone has made over the first busy summer months.
“Take security, for example. The average waiting time in July was less than 5½ minutes, and on the busiest day, 10 July, the average waiting time was just under 6 minutes, which is a real achievement,” he says.
“The busy travel days in July are generally busier than when the school holidays start in June. In July, there is a two-way flow of passengers, with a large number of people returning home at the same time as many others are just departing,” Thomas Woldbye explains.
A total of 3,012,499 passengers passed through Copenhagen Airport in July – the first time the figure has topped 3 million in a single month. This was up 0.8% on the busy July last year, when growth was 9.6%. For the year to date, passenger numbers are up 2%.
More Danes have chosen to travel long haul for their summer holiday this year. This can be seen in the figure for intercontinental traffic, which showed year-on-year growth of 6.1% in July compared to the same month last year.
“More Danes are travelling long haul – including for their summer holiday. We’re seeing strong growth in the number of passengers travelling to the USA, partly because of the new SAS route to Miami and Norwegian’s new route to Oakland near San Francisco. However, destinations in Asia such as Thailand remain the favourite long-haul summer getaways,” says Thomas Woldbye.