“Expanding CPH”, the plan for the historic expansion of Copenhagen Airport, was presented on Friday morning by Copenhagen Airport’s CEO, Thomas Woldbye, accompanied by, among others, Danish Minister for Business Brian Mikkelsen.
“The traffic here at Copenhagen Airport has grown significantly in recent years, and that growth is ongoing,” says Thomas Woldbye. “It is therefore necessary for us to ensure the future viability of the airport, and that means expanding. We need more capacity for both passengers and baggage, and we also need stands and gates for more aircraft. The plan we’ve presented here shows how we will achieve the aim of creating capacity for 40 million passengers.”
With a total investment of around DKK 20 billion, the expansion of Copenhagen Airport to handle 40 million passengers a year will be one of the largest privately financed construction projects in Danish history. According to a new report from COWI, the project will create 12,500 new jobs in the construction period alone, of which 80% will be within skilled crafts.
17 new long-haul routes and 9,000 additional jobs
“Denmark needs good links with the rest of the world. That requires a strong airport that is well connected, with routes around the globe. Copenhagen Airport is currently Northern Europe’s preferred hub. We want to maintain that position, which means we want to expand and develop the airport. We’re ready to invest in a massive expansion of the airport to create capacity for a lot more aircraft and a lot more passengers,” says Thomas Woldbye.
Among other things, the expansion will give the airport capacity for 17 new long-haul routes serving the whole world, in addition to the existing 36. This will be achieved by developing the western part of the airport, enlarging the area for stands to 1,900,000 m2, twice the size of the present area. This will make it possible to increase the number of aircraft stands from 78 to 124.
“Unless we develop the airport significantly, within a few years we will run out of capacity for aircraft. By expanding, we can handle the growing number of passengers and open a number of new interesting routes to destinations around the world. New routes give Danes better access to the world, and the world better access to Denmark. At the same time, they provide a better basis for carrying export products to emerging economies in Asia and elsewhere,” says Thomas Woldbye.
Currently, more than 16,500 people work permanently at Copenhagen Airport, which already makes the airport Denmark’s biggest workplace. By the time the airport has been expanded to handle 40 million passengers a year, the number of permanent jobs at the airport is expected to have increased by 9,000. This is in addition to the 12,500 construction jobs in the construction period. In the period 2005 to 2015 alone, CPH contributed around DKK 31 billion to Denmark’s GDP.
For further information
Contact CPH Press Department phone no. +45 3231 2800