Copenhagen Airport.

Copenhagen Airport’s CEO Thomas Woldbye has acknowledged that the -3.4% November traffic decline was mostly down to the well-documented bankruptcy of Air Berlin, although he also reports that other carriers, including SAS, Norwegian and easyJet are quickly snapping up the vacant Copenhagen-Berlin route slots.

As a result of Air Berlin’s demise, Woldbye says Copenhagen’s total passenger numbers fell by 75,079 (-3.4%) with more than half directly attributable to the carrier’s collapse – resulting in a net loss of 39,000 passengers compared with November last year.

FAST PICK-UP ON BERLIN ROUTE

Encouraged by the pick-up rate on the Berlin route, Woldbye said: “By week six next year, there will be 50 weekly services between Copenhagen and Berlin, which is equivalent to the situation before the bankruptcy.”

Source: Copenhagen Airport. Click to enlarge.

Having said that, airport management also points to ‘a notable fall in transfer traffic’, with 37,410 fewer passengers transferred via CPH, corresponding to a fall of -15.5%. SAS accounts for 82% of the airport’s transfer traffic.

Despite the aforementioned impacts leading to the November passenger decline, Copenhagen’s numbers still remained positive in the first 11 months, returning a marginal increase of +0.9% to 27,198,350 over the period.

Long-haul intercontinental routes grew by 6.2%, while traffic to Europe was up 0.7%. In fact, this year, 175,000 more passengers have chosen to travel on one of the 34 direct long-haul intercontinental routes currently operating out of the airport.

SUBSTANTIAL NUMBER OF NEW ROUTES

In 2017, new routes opened to New Delhi, with Air India, and to Agadir, with Air Arabia. At the same time, a number of airlines have increased their departures to Bangkok, Los Angeles and New York.

Thomas Woldbye, CEO, Copenhagen Airport.

“And the growth looks set to continue,” says Copenhagen Airport’s CEO Thomas Woldbye. “We already know that in 2018 we’ll be opening new routes to Hong Kong with Cathay Pacific. We have a new route to the Middle East in the pipeline. And we’re also working hard to get even more traffic to China and other destinations.”

Nevertheless, Copenhagen Airport A/S has decided to provide extra incentives for airlines by implementing two initiatives to reduce airline charges, including a new incentive scheme for frequent feeder traffic from regional airports, as overall charges reduce ‘by an average of 10%’.

Copenhagen Airport’s Chairman, Lars Nørby Johansen said the airport presented the new aviation strategy focused on strengthening Denmark’s international connectivity and Danish domestic aviation last July. As a result it now has a new regulation to cover this, although it won’t take effect until April 2019.”

BIG COST-SAVING INCENTIVES FROM NEXT APRIL

He said the reductions will begin from April 2018 in two specific initiatives: “Firstly, we’re reducing the charges that all airlines pay to use the airport. Furthermore, we’re introducing a special incentive scheme that will make charges 35% lower for frequent feeder flights between regional airports and CPH. Overall, CPH’s charges will be 10% lower from April 2018.”

The new incentive scheme will mean that the charges are 35% lower for flights between CPH and regional airports such as Billund, Bornholm, Midtjylland, Sønderborg, Aalborg and Aarhus, as well as Bergen, Gothenburg, Stavanger, Vilnius and Gdansk.

Air Berlin aircraft shown at Berlin Tegel Airport in 2014. (Image Credit: Ralf Manteufel).

 According to Lars Nørby Johansen, the reduction in charges is part of an overall strategy to strengthen Copenhagen airport’s position as a North European hub:

OPENING THE DOMESTIC FEEDER TAP…

“We want to strengthen our hub status, so the lower prices will particularly benefit airlines that fly several times daily on the shorter routes between CPH and the regional airports. In this way, we’re continuing our efforts to connect up the whole of Denmark more closely,” he says.

While the 10% reduction is expected to cost the airport around DKK300m ($47.7m) annually, management hopes ‘the considerable price reduction’ for feeder routes in particular will lead to consolidation and growth within its hub traffic, which will more than compensate.

In 2016, 29m passengers flew in and out of Copenhagen Airport, representing a 9.1% rise over the previous year. The airport is currently undergoing a major expansion to create a facility with a capacity for 40m passengers a year. The expansion, costing DKK20bn ($3.1bn), will represent one of the ‘biggest ever private construction projects in Denmark’s history’.