Copenhagen Airport turns 100 this year, and much has happened since the first aircraft took off from a grass field on Amager. Copenhagen Airport is now a major international airport that ensures connectivity for Northern Europe and connects Denmark with the whole world – and the whole world with Denmark. The appetite for travel has grown steadily throughout the years, and the year 2024 was no exception.
In fact, the last month of the year was the best December ever at Copenhagen Airport. The number of passengers travelling via Denmark’s international airport reached 2.2 million in the Christmas month, a year-on-year increase of as much as 11 per cent. This brought the total number of passengers in 2024 to 29.9 million.
“The number of passengers was on an upward trend throughout the year, and we continue to see a great appetite and need for travel. We are very pleased to be approaching 30 million passengers”, says Peter Krogsgaard, Chief Commercial Officer of Copenhagen Airports A/S.
Fewer aircraft at the airport
Despite the growing number of passengers, the number of passenger aircraft arriving at and departing from Copenhagen Airport is nine per cent lower than five years ago when the number
of passengers was largely the same.
“We see that the majority of the 54 airlines flying in and out of Copenhagen use new and more modern aircraft. The new aircraft are larger and can carry more passengers. The number of seats sold is also higher than previously. Moreover, the new aircraft types are more fuel-efficient, less noisy and less polluting, which makes for a positive development,” Krogsgaard explains.
Today, 34 per cent of all aircraft at Copenhagen Airport are of a more modern aircraft type, such as the Airbus A320neo, the Boeing 737 MAX or similar aircraft.
Growth on European routes
European routes to and from Copenhagen are seeing strong growth. In 2024, the number of passengers travelling to European destinations was up 12 per cent on 2023.
“We are experiencing a marked increase in the number of passengers on the European routes. With flights to and from our many European destinations making up 84 per cent of our total traffic, it has a great impact when Europe is on a growth path,” says Krogsgaard.
With 2.8 million passengers, the UK ranked number one among the most popular destinations, followed by Spain and Norway with 2.5 million and 2.4 million passengers, respectively.
New North American destinations
An even greater percentage increase was seen on the routes to North America, which saw a 23 per cent increase in passengers compared to the previous year. With nearly 400,000 passengers, The Big Apple, New York, was right at the top of the most popular destinations, with Los Angeles and San Francisco taking second and third place.
“We see a growing interest in travels between Copenhagen and North America. While the USA and Canada are popular destinations among travellers from Denmark and southern Sweden, we see an even bigger interest among Americans flying to Copenhagen to visit Denmark and other European countries,” says Krogsgaard.
Several new routes from Copenhagen to North America opened during the year. SAS opened its new services to Atlanta and JFK-New York, and American Airlines opened its service to Philadelphia. This means that there are now 14 direct routes between Copenhagen and North America. In addition to the three new routes, SAS offers direct flights to Los Angeles, Newark-New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Boston, Washington D.C., Miami and Toronto, Air Canada offers direct flights to Montreal and Toronto, and Delta Air Lines offers a direct flight to JFK-New York.
A growing number of passengers now fly through CPH to destinations around the world
A growing number of passengers are using Copenhagen Airport as a stopover on their journey to destinations around the world. Last year, 5.7 million transfer passengers travelled via Copenhagen, representing a 19 per cent year-on-year increase.
The majority of transfer passengers fly in from airports in Sweden, Norway and Germany to stop over in Copenhagen Airport on their journey to one of the 175 destinations Copenhagen Airport offers.
“It is more efficient for airlines to gather their passengers in Copenhagen and fill a flight to Atlanta, for example, or other long-haul destinations. This results in additional direct international routes from Copenhagen Airport, and the high level of connectivity means, among other things, that Denmark is able to attract international businesses and foreign labour, which benefits Danish society as a whole,” Krogsgaard explains.
A growing number of airlines are choosing to operate routes to and from Copenhagen, and on the first day of 2025, our anniversary year, Copenhagen Airport welcomed back the world’s largest passenger aircraft, the iconic Airbus A380, which is operated by Emirates. Copenhagen has not seen the Airbus A380 since the beginning of the pandemic almost five years ago, but the continued growth in people’s appetite for travel has changed that.
Copenhagen Airport, which – with its 100 years – is one of the world’s oldest commercial airports, expects to welcome even more travellers and new connections to the world in 2025.
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