Copenhagen Airport: 90th birthday wrap-up
From Copenhagen Airport today, we can all travel as cosmopolites. It started with “the wooden castle” on Amager in 1925, where grazing sheep kept the runway grass short; and where people gathered to watch the fascinating flying machines perform. At that time, though, traveling by plane was only for the rich and adventurous; but this would soon change.
Quote from Thomas Woldbye, CEO of Copenhagen Airport: ” For 90 years now, Copenhagen Airport has been Denmark’s air route out into the world and the setting for the joy of travel and events both great and small. From the realization of a holiday dream or a successful business trip to Royalty events and state visits. From a daughter’s safe arrival home after a three-month trip around the world to scenes of jubilation for a team of broad shouldered European handball champions.
The next 90 years will also be about the joy of travel here in Copenhagen Airport. We will provide our guests with the best experiences and the best possible service whether at check-in, Security control, while buying a cup of coffee, or shopping. For this reason, we invest 1 billion Danish kroner (GBP 100m) annually to improve and expand the airport – and we will continue to do so in the coming years.”
In 1939, one of the worlds - at that time - most modern airport buildings was built: the Vilhelm Lauritzen terminal. During that year, a dizzying 70,000 people travelled by air. Today, 70,000 people pass through the airport – per day.
Since then, there have been expansions, the opening of Terminal 2 in 1960, and the democratization of air travel with the 1970’s triumphal progress of the charter trip. Later, low-budget flights arrived and made the world even more accessible. And CPH continued to build: Terminal 3 in 1998, expansion of Terminal 2, a Hilton hotel, longer piers and many more gates. Then came a train station and metro. All this while the Internet completely democratized and globalized flying and traveling.
This can be seen in growth, which has been nearly constant since 1925 – interrupted only by a world war and a couple of financial crises over the years. In 2014, 25.6 million passengers flew from CPH to one of the 157 destinations that are available today.
A FEW FACTS
- Copenhagen Airport – CPH – is one of the oldest civil airports in the world, located near Kastrup on Amager in 1925, eight kilometers from the center of Copenhagen. The terminal was called “The Wooden Castle” (“Træslottet”). At that time, sheep ‘trimmed’ the grass runway.
- When the Vilhelm Lauritzen terminal opened in 1939, the airport counted a staggering 70,000 passengers that year - the equivalent of the number of passengers on one day in 2015.
- Today, CPH is Denmark’s biggest private work place, with 23,000 employees in more than 700 firms.
- Northern Europe’s biggest hub, with 25.6 million passengers in 2014.
- The most popular destinations are London, Stockholm, Oslo, Amsterdam and Paris.
- There are 157 direct destinations from which to choose.
- 71 carriers. The three largest are SAS (42%), Norwegian (17%), and easyJet (6%).
- In 2014, the busiest day of the year was 27 June; 98,674 passengers passed through the airport.
- Nearly 90% of all flights depart on time. This makes CPH one of the world’s most punctual airports.
- Passengers’ preferred check-in method is self-service, which 38% of all passengers use.
- 87% of passengers are through Security in less than five minutes.
- The airport’s area is 12.4 km2, the equivalent of 2,000 football pitches.
- The ambition of the plan called Expanding CPH is to expand the airport so that in future it can accommodate 40 million passengers annually.
- CPH continually wins a great many awards, for instance, Northern Europe’s best airport, Europe’s most efficient airport, Europe’s best baggage reclaim, World’s best security, World’s best selection of restaurants, and World’s- and Europe’s champion in developing new routes.
Please take a moment to take a look at a Birthday flashmob video created especially for the special day.