Bumper October further fuelled by uplift in Aarhus codeshares

Continuing international growth as Aarhus warms up to be 2017 European Capital of Culture

October 2016 demonstrated yet another very strong international passenger traffic increase of 23.4% versus 2015 on direct services.  Additionally, year-to-date, Aarhus Airport has welcomed sizeable increase in feeder passengers connecting to and from onward international destinations.  Measured in the 10s of thousands, these customers are enjoying continually improving connectivity between Aarhus and hundreds of destinations right around the world, mostly by way of codeshare partnerships, linking Jutland travellers to their onward flights at Copenhagen, Stockholm or Oslo.  Aarhus now benefits from many codeshare services as the frequency of connections via Nordic capitals with SAS and British Airways is so extensive and those airlines now offering codeshare travel from and to Aarhus include Qatar Airways (with British Airways) and EgyptAir (with SAS). 

Sharp increase in passenger numbers to many codeshare destinations

In some cases the increase in traveller numbers in 2016 to-date has been very significant and in particular growth to a number of destinations in Finland has exceded 100% while travel to destinations such as Bali in Indonesia has grown by 91% and to Sydney in Australia by 46%, both reached by frequent codeshare service of Singapore Airlines and Thai Airways from Aarhus and more recently with Qatar Airways.  In Africa, the addition of EgyptAir codeshare service at Aarhus has seen passenger numbers to Cairo grow by 33% and introduced by far some of the quickest connections to Johannesburg and Nairobi.  The largest markets at Aarhus in terms of passenger volumes made possible by codeshare connections are to Helsinki in Finland and Vienna in Austria, which between them attract over 6000 indirect customers.

Frequency and convenience from Aarhus

Austrian, Lufthansa, Turkish and Finnair all offer both morning and evening one-stop service, to Vienna, Frankfurt, Munich, Helsinki or Istanbul – and beyond – while single daily one-stop service is in place with Air Canada to Toronto, with Thai Airways to Bangkok, Qatar Airways and Singapore Airlines.    These codeshare services are in addition to the many daily SAS connections offered via Stockholm and Copenhagen from Aarhus that bring customers to highly convenient onward flights for destinations including Asia and the United States, where Los Angeles via Stockholm and Miami via Copenhagen are brand new for 2016.  Closer to home, SAS has also grown connectivity to Reykjavik and for 2017 will add Vagar in the Faroe Islands and Riga in Latvia among others, which are statistically popular destinations from Aarhus.  SAS itself will open a new direct service from Aarhus to Malaga starting in June next summer.  

“Codeshare services are an excellent and proven method for airlines and airports to develop the market potential for feeder contribution to mainstream services”, said Aarhus Airport’s David Surley – Head of Airline Relations.  “We enjoy a good number of codesharing carriers here at Aarhus thanks to extensive frequency on links to Nordic hubs.  Awareness of those codeshares is improving and customers are stepping onboard in greater numbers, we have seen quite a hike in take-up to some destinations and codeshare traffic is definitely driving custom and proving viability for future direct service opportunity”.

Further afield, new codeshare-based destinations from Aarhus now reach Adelaide, Auckland and Krabi with Qatar Airways, Havana or the Seychelles with Austrian and through to Canberra with Singapore Airlines.  You can now head westward with Air Canada via Copenhagen to points like Palm Springs beyond Toronto.