Copenhagen Airport traffic remains at an all-time low

There is hope for the restoration of air travel in the summer with the help of vaccinations and COVID-19 passports

Air traffic is still declining as Denmark marks its one-year anniversary of entering a national lockdown exactly one year ago today.

Just 106,000 people passed through the country’s largest airport in February of this year – a drop of 95% compared with 2020.

The pandemic triggered the worst crisis for Copenhagen Airport (CPH) since the Second World War. Passenger numbers fell from 30.3 million to just 7.5 million in 2020. This year, figures for both flights and passengers have continued to decline.

Copenhagen Airport
Photo Copenhagen Airport 

Peter Krogsgaard, chief commercial officer of Copenhagen Airports, reiterates that “the aviation industry was the first to be hit by the crisis, and we’ll probably be the last to emerge from it.”

Presently, the Danish aviation sector has lost around 10,000 jobs since the beginning of the pandemic, with most of them being at CPH.

There is some hope for the potential recovery of summer travel later this year. With vaccine roll outs happening globally, alongside the development of an international coronavirus passport, it is hoped that air travel may be able to resume in the near future.

Vueling recently announced new routes from CPH to three Spanish destinations – Malaga, Alicante and Barcelona.

Other airlines have also added new destinations to summer flight schedules. SAS and Norwegian will be operating holiday routes to places such as Crete, Athens, Kos, Rhodes, Rome, Florence, Sicily, Pisa, Milan, Malta, Alanya, Nice, Montpellier and Dubrovnik.

EasyJet has announced that it will be focussing more on European city breaks, including Berlin, Paris and London. Ryanair will also be providing services to Porto, Naples and Thessaloniki.

"We don't expect demand for air travel to take off until steps are taken to reopen society in Denmark and internationally. We're certainly looking forward to seeing Danes travel the world again, but we're just as excited about welcoming some of the several millions of tourists who usually visit Denmark during the summer months," Krogsgaard concludes.