CPH Traffic Statistics: Busy Easter balances out pilots’ strike
The SAS pilots’ strike during the last five days of April resulted in 85,000 fewer travellers than expected in Copenhagen Airport. The busy Easter, however, offset this, resulting in a total number of travellers of 2.5 million, an increase of 0.5 percent compared with the same month last year.
Easter is traditionally one of the year’s busiest periods in Copenhagen Airport, and this year was no exception. All told, 2,508,962 travellers came through the terminals during the month of April.
The increase was not as large as expected, however, due to the pilots’ strike during the last five days of April. Many passengers were re-booked by SAS or managed to find tickets with one of the 70 or so other airlines flying from Copenhagen. Overall, however, the strike did result in fewer travellers.
”The five days of pilots’ strike in April resulted in approximately 85,000 fewer travellers than expected. This is, however, offset by the busy Easter, meaning that April shows a total increase of 0.5 percent,” says Thomas Woldbye, CEO, Copenhagen Airport.
Many factors influence traffic statistics. When comparing with April of 2018, there are, for example, two airlines missing this year: Primera Air, which went bankrupt in October of 2018 and the Icelandic WOW Air, which went bankrupt in March of this year. Between them, the two companies represented 36,500 passengers in April of last year. They are missing this year.
”An April increase of 0.5 percent in spite of strike and bankruptcies is quite good, and demonstrates the solid and healthy underlying growth in Copenhagen Airport,” says Thomas Woldbye.
For the year to date, the number of travellers has increased by one percent - particularly due to the long-haul intercontinental routes to and from destinations outside Europe. For these, growth during the first four months of the year has been 10.3 percent.
On the Top-10 destinations list, Berlin, the year’s high achiever, continues to grow. This means that the German capital is now the eighth largest destination from Copenhagen. During the first four months of the year, Berlin has increased by 13.1 percent to a total of 205,395 travellers.