Two million travellers in February
1.98 million travellers passed through Copenhagen Airport in February – a seven per cent year-on-year increase. Despite the rising number of passengers, there are fewer departures from and arrivals at Copenhagen Airport than six years ago. The reason is a growing proportion of new, larger aircraft. Today, one in three aircraft at the airport is a modern type producing less noise and pollution than older types.
February equals holiday time for many people. With schools being on winter break, many went on holiday by plane during the two winter break weeks. 1,983,864 passengers passed through the terminals at CPH during the last month of winter. This was 7.2 per cent more than in February 2024, even though that was a leap year and February thus had 29 days.
“We are seeing a lot of people taking the opportunity to get away during the winter break, either to sunny beaches or to snowy mountain pistes. During the two winter break weeks alone, some 1.3 million passengers passed through the airport – including the many foreign tourists visiting Denmark or transferring at CPH on their way to other destinations around the world,” says Peter Krogsgaard, Chief Commercial Officer of Copenhagen Airports A/S.
Two in three travellers at Copenhagen Airport are foreigners, and Danes make up 35 per cent of the airport’s passengers. 13 per cent of travellers are Swedes, nine per cent are Americans and eight per cent are British.
Fewer aircraft despite more passengers
Despite the rising passenger numbers, 13 per cent fewer passenger aircraft arrived at and departed from Copenhagen Airport than in February six years ago, when the number of passengers was the same as today.
“The reason for this positive trend is that many airlines use newer and larger aircraft with greater seat capacity and that the number of seats sold is higher than previously,” says Krogsgaard.
In February, the cabin factor was 74.5 per cent, up eight per cent compared with February 2019, when the number of passengers was the same.
Modern aircraft are less polluting
There are an average of 615 daily departures from or arrivals at Copenhagen Airport, and of these, the proportion of new and more modern aircraft types has grown in recent years. Today, more than a third – 34 per cent – of all aircraft at the airport are of a modern aircraft type, for example Airbus A320neo or Boeing 737 MAX. In 2019, this figure was only five per cent.
“The advantages of the new, modern aircraft types are that they are more fuel efficient, less noisy and less polluting. We expect this development to continue. The growing use of new and larger aircraft types also means that we are expanding the airport’s aircraft parking stands and other facilities to accommodate the new types of less polluting aircraft. We are constantly looking at how we can organise the airport to be as efficient and attractive as possible,” says Krogsgaard.
Thailand is a hit for the winter break
The long-haul routes out of Copenhagen have seen the largest percentage increase. The most popular country is the USA, followed by the Emirates and Thailand.
Asian countries are popular destinations during the winter months, and in February, flights to Thailand were nearly full to capacity with a cabin factor of 96.9 per cent. Some 43,000 passengers travelled between Copenhagen and one of the three Thai destinations of Bangkok, Phuket and Krabi, which was 32 percent more than in the same period last year.
“Thailand is one of the absolute favourite destinations for the winter months, when many are looking to escape the darkness of winter and head for sun, warm temperatures and exciting adventures. The vast majority travel directly to Bangkok, a destination served by both Thai Airways and SAS, while charter flights fly to Phuket and Krabi. Bangkok is one of the major destinations during the winter months. In fact, 12 percent of all long-haul travellers out of Copenhagen in February travelled to Bangkok,” says Krogsgaard.
On top of these, many travellers fly to Thailand with a stopover in one of the major traffic hubs in the Middle East, such as Doha, Dubai or Abu Dhabi.
