Copenhagen Airport receives international efficiency award for the tenth time

The world's leading aviation society, the independent Air Transport Research Society (ATRS), rates the world's most efficient airports once a year. For the tenth time in twelve years, Copenhagen Airport won the title "Europe's most efficient airport".

We see this award as recognition of our efforts to strengthen our position as one of the most important hubs of northern Europe. Although this is the tenth time in twelve years that Copenhagen Airport wins the award for being Europe's most efficient airport, we do not take it for granted. We are constantly working on increasing customer satisfaction and efficiency through automation and self-service solutions, which also means that we are reducing costs for our partners: the airlines, handlers, concessionaires and all other operators at Copenhagen Airport," said Thomas Woldbye, CEO of Copenhagen Airports A/S.

Best in Europe time after time
Each year, the ATRS assesses productivity, costs and efficiency at some 200 airports worldwide, and Copenhagen Airport has, time and again, been rated best in Europe in that field.

As the aviation industry has become more competitive, airports have had to compete for business from airlines, as well as from passengers and shippers. Each year the ATRS analyzes data on airport costs and outputs in order to arrive at the most efficient airports in all the major regions of the world. We are pleased to announce this year’s winners at our World Conference in Singapore – airports that serve as the benchmarks for the industry,” said Professor Martin Dresner, President and CEO of ATRS.

"It is part of our DNA that we insist on operating an efficient airport as it strengthens our competitive position with ensuing benefits both to ourselves and to our business partners. Our Airport Optimisation Department, which we set up a few years ago, works continually both to assess our current efficiency and to launch new initiatives that will make us even more efficient in future," said Thomas Woldbye, continuing:

"The many automation and self-service solutions we have introduced in recent years, such as check-in kiosks, self-service bag drops and self-service boarding, help us achieve such a high level of efficiency, and the about 100,000 passenger interviews we conduct per year show that it helps increase passenger satisfaction."

Terminal 2 a very good example
Specific proof of the continual focus on efficiency improvements can be found in the recently renovated Terminal 2. One of the latest initiatives in the terminal is the installation of sensors in the ceiling that register whether passengers are moving or are standing still. This helps the airport predict and, thereby, prevent queuing.

Although we had added more than 2,000 square metres of space for passengers, the ever rising passenger numbers still meant that we needed to improve efficiency in the terminal. Through dynamic queue management, self-service bag drops and optimised utilisation of the check-in facilities, we have increased the capacity of the terminal by a considerable margin," said Thomas Woldbye.

The self-service bag drops reduce the time passengers spend at the counters to as little as 15 seconds, and the optimised use of check-in facilities has increased efficiency by 30%. Both of these improvements helped us reduce the airport's costs per passenger by 1.7%.