International growth at Aarhus passes 80% mark

May 2018 produced exceptionally strong development in passenger numbers at Aarhus Airport serving Scandinavia’s fifth largest market.  Customer numbers continued to climb steeply, with an overall monthly increase in travellers of +31% versus May 2017 and growth in international travellers of +80,2% with many new passengers taking advantage of the Airport’s proliferation of new European routes.

The jump in international traffic is the largest recorded and domestic passenger numbers were also at their highest to-date in 2018 despite the influx of new capacity by SAS on direct intra-Scandinavian routes removing the need to fly via Copenhagen.  May’s surge in customers comes after a corresponding rise in traffic of +77.4% in April, when SAS opened its new international base with daily services to Oslo, Stockholm and Munich on newly located CRJ-900 aircraft, also launching flights to Nice in France.  Next week the airline will open its 7th new route of 2018 from Aarhus, to the Dalmatian resort of Split, in Croatia: the first time Aarhus and Split have been connected by scheduled service.  SAS will fly Airbus A320s twice-weekly on the route, as well as doubling-up frequency on new services from Malaga and to Palma de Mallorca, from once to twice-weekly.    

“The growth in traffic is rewarding”, commented David Surley – Head of Airline Relations, “we have worked hard with our airline customers to develop a range of compelling new destinations, great business travel links and tempting leisure routes to excite Aarhus travellers as well as making it easier for inbound customers to get here.  It is working out very nicely indeed, 80% year-on-year growth is fantastic by anyone’s standards – a major step along our track towards optimising international connectivity for one of Scandinavia’s top five, most brilliant and fastest expanding markets”.

Development in the city’s airport traffic is not the only current notable success for Aarhus.  In the recently revealed 2017 ranking by ICCA (International Congress & Convention Association), Aarhus climbed no less than 28 places among major meeting and conference destinations, soaring to 72nd most popular place in the world as a venue for business tourism events. Aarhus entered the ICCA world top 100 in 2016 cementing the city on fast-track for development of the meetings tourism sector. 

“The change of gear we have seen in commercial tourism over the last few years has been wonderful and now it is all about keeping up the pace”, said Allan Tambo Christensen – Head of Conventions at VisitAarhus.  “It is part of our new strategy to double conference turnover to DKK 2 billion towards 2025 and we will achieve this goal by great collaboration with our fantastic partners in the tourism chain”, he said.

VisitAarhus, Aarhus University, Aarhus Airport and other stakeholder partners co-operate widely on attracting international congress and conventions to the city, which was European Capital of Culture in 2017 and recently published its short-term economic impact report demonstrating extremely positive foundations for sustainable high tourism growth.  Aarhus has ranked top in tourism growth among major Scandinavian cities for five consecutive years, measured by total overnight and international overnighting visitor stays of +65%.  The conference market is of very high value, contributing around DKK3000 per person per day to the economy and as host city for the world-leading IoT (Internet of Things) 2019 conference, this 4-day event alone will generate upward of DKK 12 million in visitor spend for Aarhus.   A new, second conference and congress centre is under development on Aarhus Ø waterfront island, due for completion in 2022 and featuring Denmark's largest conference hotel of 600+ room capacity.     

Aarhus Airport also welcomed strong growth in passenger traffic from markets such as Poland, newly served by Ryanair from Gdansk and also additional summer capacity by the airline from the UK with a 75% increase in seats year-on-year planned for August alone on its established London route.   

“New markets and established ones alike are doing so well”, said David Surley, “visitors from countries such as Germany and the UK have soared in recent times, so new capacity on routes like Munich and growth from London are very welcome, plus we are eagerly awaiting the start of new flights from Berlin and bringing easyJet to our city this summer”.  easyJet begins serving Aarhus from 01 September, commencing with a direct link between the city and the airline’s fast developing Berlin Tegel hub.