New record, new year, new routes for Denmark

Year-end traffic figures at Denmark’s Aarhus Airport concluded with continued bouyancy as Q4 2018 produced +83% international passengers overall and a blended growth of +31% in total customers.  An additional 33,000 international customers passed through the airport in the autumn period as Scandinavia’s fastest growing gateway welcomed the New Year and another raft of new routes and destinations.

“I think 2018 was a fantastic year in Aarhus”, commented David Surley – the Airport’s head of airline relations. “it was a major growth period for international passenger traffic and we welcomed nine new routes with a new international base opened by SAS and the arrival of easyJet, which was a first for mainland Denmark.  Tourism has been very strong in Aarhus where the economy is rock solid and in continued expansion as we move into the new year”.

Routes to Berlin Tegel and London Gatwick by easyJet and to Munich, Malaga, Nice, Oslo, Palma, Split and Stockholm by SAS all joined the Airport’s route network during 2018 and for 2019 there will be new services to Faro and Rome, plus 3-weekly to Manchester as SAS continues to expand.  Also summer destinations including Chania (Crete) and Zakynthos, as tour operators grow including newcomer Sunweb with 3 summer destinations, while the Airport also unveiled new flights to Varna in Bulgaria for 2019 as a weekly service by BH Air for a number of tour operators takes-off.

“We have six new destinations on the map, with new routes opening in April, May and June already”, said Surley, “Bulgaria’s Black Sea Coast is in our leisure timetable for the first time as well as two new Greek islands, the Algarve in Portugal and our first scheduled route to the Italian capital, Rome.  With Aarhus continuing to demonstrate such strong economic growth driving both business travel and outward leisure, as well as high development in hotel and conference capacity, a fast increasing number of major events, so the demand for international air travel in Scandinavia’s fifth largest metropolitan area, is very positive”.

Markets including the USA, Canada, Spain, Poland, France, Russia and Romania were noted as generating strong inbound tourism volumes to Aarhus during 2018 and with a growing annual event calendar in the city, this is expected to continue.  Aarhus is now one of Scandinavia’s top festival destinations and this year Aarhus is host city for the 2019 Tall Ships Race Final and Maritime Festival – the world’s largest annual sporting spectator event.  Municipal event planners expect an audience of around ½ million visitors to crowd the Aarhus waterfront between 1-4 August this summer.

In Q3 2018 there was +110% international traffic recorded at Aarhus and +154% in August alone, putting the Airport top of Scandinavia’s growth chart.  In total 2018 produced +30% passenger total and +80% international customers. “There are many markets yet to be opened and develop further”, said Surley, “we are delighted that customers are turning to AAR as their preferred choice more and more, to the tune of 14,000 or more new passengers per month already.  It is those customers who want more destinations and more airline choice, closer to home, so they are voting with their feet and flying from here.  We have to continue to present them with great service and good connectivity”.