Before the global pandemic struck, the summer months were always the busiest time of the year at Copenhagen Airport (CPH). That still holds true, but in August 2019, the total number of passengers was 2,942,021. Compared to that, this year’s traffic was down by no less than 66 per cent: The total for August 2021 was only 1,286,187 passengers. Given the pandemic’s persistence, the trend is positive and the figure for August surpassed July by 52,399 travellers. That makes August the busiest month of 2021 so far, but challenges remain:
“The aviation industry has been brought to its knees all over the world. Shifting travel restrictions, ongoing challenges with new variants and tentative forecasts on how things might unfold make it difficult for people to plan business travel let alone their holidays. Fortunately, it looks as if Denmark has emerged relatively unscathed from the pandemic. A very large proportion of our population have been vaccinated, so our country is a safe destination for visitors,” explains Peter Krogsgaard, Chief Commercial Officer of Copenhagen Airports A/S.
However, he also points out that tourism in Denmark has all but disappeared during the pandemic as reflected in the statistics:
“Before the pandemic, Denmark welcomed more than six million tourists every year. They are sorely missed now. The good news is that traffic at CPH is up compared to the figures from earlier this year.”
New routes and new connections out of CPH
Despite the current afflictions of the global aviation industry, airlines continue to open new routes out of CPH. The vast majority are to various destinations in Europe, while overseas routes are still few and far between:
“We’re very pleased that the airlines continue to add new routes out of CPH, and it makes sense that they’re focused on Europe for the moment,” says Krogsgaard, referring to the fact that traffic in August to and from Europe combined with domestic flights accounted for more than 90 per cent of the activity at CPH.
“While traffic is concentrated around European destinations, we do see from our top destinations that passengers were drawn to sunnier climes and our business travellers are also coming back,” explains Krogsgaard.
Once again, Aalborg was the top destination out of CPH, followed by Stockholm, Amsterdam, Oslo and Paris slightly ahead of Palma, Malaga and Istanbul.
CPH excels in passenger satisfaction
Although passenger volumes are not up to par with previous years, activity has by no means ceased at CPH. In fact, Denmark’s largest airport was ranked ninth best European airport across all categories at the World Airport Awards held in August. Munich took first place overall.
CPH was named European runner-up in the subcategory of Airport Security Screening, i.e. In getting passengers and their baggage quickly and efficiently through security. Only Zurich was ranked higher.
The awards are based on a large number of customer satisfaction surveys performed at more than 500 airports the world over.
Last, but not least, CPH – along with 38 other airports – won the special COVID-19 Airport Excellence Award based on passenger ratings of safety, security and hygiene standards in the midst of the current health crisis:
“Our focus is on providing a good customer experience for our travellers, from the moment they arrive at the airport until they take their seats onboard the plane, ready for take-off. Obviously, we’re delighted that passengers appreciate our continued efforts in ensuring that CPH is a pleasant, safe and secure airport, whether you’re arriving or departing,” says Krogsgaard.