A summary of 2023 and what our expectations are for 2024
PHOTO BY: Michael Kidmose
PUBLISHED: 23/1/2024
2023 in review
In 2023, Copenhagen Airport (CPH) experienced significant passenger growth, with a total of 26.8 million passengers. This marked a 21% increase in total passengers compared to the previous year, making it the best year since 2019. Out of the 26.8 million total passengers, 4.8 million were transfer passengers, bringing the transfer share to 17.8%. This is just 1.8 percentage points away from the 2019 levels and 2.2 percentage points higher than last year's transfer share. Additionally, the average load factor out of CPH reached 75.6% in 2023, which is 0.9 percentage points higher than in 2019.
The four largest airlines at CPH remained unchanged from the previous year: SAS (32%), Norwegian (15%), Ryanair (8%), and easyJet (5%). The ten most popular destinations from CPH in 2023, based on total passenger numbers, were as follows:
- London (1.8m)
- Oslo (1.4m)
- Stockholm (1.2m)
- Amsterdam (1.1m)
- Paris (1m)
- Aalborg (790k)
- Istanbul (620k)
- Helsinki (600k)
- Malaga (580k)
- Frankfurt (550k)
The year also witnessed significant new long-haul route openings from CPH, with SAS returning to New York JFK and Bangkok, Air Canada introduced non-stop flights to Montreal, Air India resumed its Delhi operations, Ethiopian Airlines commenced flights to Addis Ababa, and Etihad Airways inaugurated a new route to Abu Dhabi.
Expectations for 2024
2024 promises to be an exciting year for CPH and the route development process. We anticipate that our passenger numbers will continue to grow throughout the year, approaching the levels reached in 2019. While airlines are finalizing their summer programs, we are looking forward to the new routes and destinations that have already been announced. These include the entrance of American Airlines with a new route to Philadelphia, and SAS adding a new route to Atlanta.
This year, the route development team will participate in several events and conferences to further the route development of CPH. Subject to schedule changes, the CPH route development team is due to be represented at the following conferences this year:
January 29-31: World Cargo Summit, Bangkok
February 7-9: CONNECT, Turin
February 27-29: Routes Asia, Langkawi
March 12-14: World Cargo Symposium, Hong Kong
April 10: Tour, Partner, and Interline Workshop, Copenhagen
April 22-24: Routes Europe, Aarhus
April 23: Nordic Air Cargo Symposium, Stockholm
June 11-13: IATA 154th Slots Conference, Bogota
October 6-8: Routes World, Bahrain
November 11-14: Air Cargo Forum, Miami
November 19-22: IATA 155th Slots Conference, Singapore
If you are interested in meeting up with us at a conference or elsewhere, you are always welcome to contact us. We look forward to meeting and working together with our many colleagues and partners throughout the year.
