No more low-flying aircraft over the city
Many people in Copenhagen have noticed the low-flying aircraft over the capital this summer. They will be pleased to know that Copenhagen Airport will be completing the extensive renovation of one of its main runways slightly ahead of schedule.
Since early July, one of Copenhagen Airport's two main runways has been closed for an extensive renovation and expansion project. This has meant many take-offs and landings over both Copenhagen and Malmo in Sweden; while some people have been fascinated by the low-flying aircraft coming in for landing over the city, it has also been a major inconvenience to many local residents who have had to put up with the extra noise.
Fortunately, it is over now. The easterly of the airport's two main runways, the 04R/22L, will reopen this coming Monday, 31 August at 6:00 am, a week earlier than scheduled. This means most of the air traffic over the capital will return to the usual pattern with the vast majority of take-offs and landings taking place over water to make the inconvenience to residents and businesses close to the airport as little as possible.
Autumn in July
We're very much aware that we've really tested the patience of the people living near the airport. We always renovate our runways during the summer, because that's when we have the fewest aircraft at the airport and weather conditions are usually good. Only, that's not the way it was this year. We had many days of challenging wind conditions, both in terms of direction and force. That meant we had to operate many take-offs and landings over the city areas of both Copenhagen and Malmo, regrettably causing inconvenience to many of our neighbouring communities,” said Dan Meincke, Director of Traffic at Copenhagen Airport.
Ready for the world's largest aircraft
On top of this year's major renovation project, the 04R/22L runway has been broadened by four metres on either side. The runway is now ready to accommodate the world's largest passenger aircraft, the Airbus A380, which the Emirates airline will deploy on the service to Dubai from 1 December 2015.
Copenhagen Airport renovates its runways every summer, but the regular annual renovation usually takes place at night, so it will be another 15 years before the 04R/22L will again be due for major renovation works.