Copenhagen Airport

Copenhagen Airport, Kastrup Københavns Lufthavn, Kastrup
IATA: CPH ICAO: EKCH
Summary
Airport type	Public
Owner	Københavns Lufthavne
Serves	Copenhagen, Denmark
Location	Kastrup, Tårnby
Hub for	Scandinavian Airlines Blue1 Thomas Cook Airlines Scandinavia Star Air
Elevation AMSL	5 m / 17 ft
Website	cph.dk
Map
CPH Location within Denmark
Runways
Direction Length Surface m ft 04L/22R 3,600 11,811 Asphalt 04R/22L 3,300 10,827 Asphalt 12/30 2,800 9,186 Asphalt/Concrete
Statistics (2013)
Passengers 24,067,030 Domestic 1,902,652 International 22,164,378 Aircraft movements 244,942 Cargo (tonnes) N.A.
Source: AIP

Copenhagen Airport, Kastrup (Danish: Københavns Lufthavn, Kastrup) or Copenhagen Airport (Danish: Københavns Lufthavn; IATA: CPH, ICAO: EKCH) is the main international airport serving Copenhagen, Denmark, the entire Zealand, the Øresund Region, and a large part of southern Sweden (not only Scania). It is the busiest international airport in Scandinavia (24.1 million passengers per year in 2013), but handles relatively few domestic passengers (just below 2 million passengers per year in 2013).

The airport is located on the island of Amager, just 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) south of Copenhagen city centre, and 24 kilometres (15 mi) west of Malmö city centre on the other side of the Øresund Bridge. The airport lies mainly in the municipality of Tårnby, with a small portion in neighboring Dragør. It is the largest airport in the Nordic countries and one of the oldest international airports in Europe.

The airport is the main hub out of three used by Scandinavian Airlines and is also an operating base for Thomas Cook Airlines Scandinavia and Norwegian Air Shuttle. Copenhagen Airport handles 60 scheduled airlines and serves more than 62,000 passengers per day; 23.3 million passengers passed through the facility in 2012, making it the busiest airport in the Nordic countries, with a maximum capacity of 83 loadings/hour and with room for 108 airplanes. Unlike other Scandinavian airports, a considerable share of the airport's passengers are international. The domestic part of the annual passengers is lower than 10%. The airport is owned by Københavns Lufthavne, which also operates Roskilde Airport. The airport employs 1700 staff (excluding shops, restaurants etc.).

Copenhagen Airport was originally called Kastrup Airport, since it is located in the small town of Kastrup, now a part of the Tårnby municipality. The formal name of the airport is still Copenhagen Airport, Kastrup, to distinguish it from Roskilde Airport, which was previously called Copenhagen Airport, Roskilde.

History

Aerial view of Copenhagen Airport

Aerial view of the passenger terminals at Copenhagen Airport

• 1925 (1925): CPH opens for service on 20 April. One of the first private airports in the world, it opens with a grass runway.
• 1932 (1932): 6000 take-offs and landings in the year.
• 1936 (1936): 1939 New terminal, considered one of the finest examples of Nordic functionalism, is built (Architect: Vilhelm Lauritzen).
• 1941 (1941): First hard-surface runway is built.
• 1946 (1946): SAS is founded, an important event for Copenhagen Airport, as Copenhagen was to be the main hub for the airline. Traffic increases rapidly in the first years SAS operates. Also, Copenhagen Airport becomes Europe's third-largest.
• 1947 (1947): On 26 January, a KLM DC-3 crashes at the airport after stopping en route to Stockholm. 22 people die, including the Swedish prince Gustav Adolf and the American opera singer Grace Moore.
• 1948 (1948): 150 take-offs and landings per day, and 3000 passengers are handled per day.
• 1950 (1950): 378,000 passengers are handled.
• 1954 (1954): 11,000 tonnes of freight handled per year. SAS begins the world's first trans-polar route, flying initially to Los Angeles. The route proves to be a publicity coup, and for some years Copenhagen becomes a popular transit point for Hollywood stars and producers flying to Europe.
• 1956 (1956): 1 million passengers handled per year. CPH wins the award for the world's best airport.
• 1960s – With the advent of jet airliners, debate begins about a major expansion of the airport. Jets need longer runways than had previously been used, and plans are drawn up to expand the airport either into existing communities in Kastrup or onto Saltholm, a small island. Local protests ensue and expansion is stalled for some time.
• 1960 (1960): On 30 April, Terminal 2, also designed by Lauritzen, opens. Also, a new control tower opens and the airport handles 2 million passengers per year.
• 1970s (1970s): The airport suffers from acute space shortages, especially with the advent of large jets such as 747s. After initially deciding to expand to Saltholm, the project is eventually blocked by Denmark's parliament.
• 1973 (1973): 8 million passengers handled per year. The third (long) runway opens and the dual runway system (04L/22R-04R/22L) opens, strongly expanding the capacity of possible numbers of starts and landings.
• 1982 (1982): The Cargo terminal opens.
• 1986 (1986): A parking garage with 2400 spaces opens.
• 1991 (1991): The airport is partially privatised.
• 1998 (1998): Terminal 3 opens, and the airport handles 17 million (international) passengers per year.
• 1999 (1999): Baggage handling system is modernised, and the Vilhelm Lauritzen terminal is moved 3.8 km down the runway to make room for new terminals, a hotel, and a train station for regional trains opens..
• 2000 (2000): The airport handles 18.4 million passengers per year. The train system becomes international, linking the airport also to southern Sweden.
• 2001 (2001): A five-star Hilton hotel with 382 beds opens at the airport. 267,000 take-offs and landings.
• 2005 (2005): Macquaire Airport buys 52% of stocks.
• 2006 (2006): Number of passengers exceeds 20 million for the first time (20.9 million).
• 2007 (2007): A metro station opens, connecting the airport to the Copenhagen Metro.
• 2008 (2008): A new control tower is opened by Naviair as part of a major renovation of the ATC system. Airport officials announce plan to build a new low-cost terminal at the facility, which is expected to be completed by 2010.
• 2009 (2009): Macquaire Airport is spun off as MAp Airports.
• 2010 (2010): The new low cost terminal CPH Go opens the 31st of October.
• 2011 (2011): 22.725.517 passengers are handled. A record high.
• 2011 (2011): MAp Airports sold its stake in the airport to Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan.
• 2012 (2012): 23,336,187 passengers are handled. A record high.
• 2013 (2013): Voted best airport in the world in terms of route network development at the World Route conference in Las Vegas.
• 2013 (2013): 24,067,030 passengers are handled. A record high.
• 2014 (2014): Announced plans to increase capacity to 40 million passengers per year

Terminals

Outside view of Terminal 2

Check-in desks at Terminal 2

Copenhagen Airport has four terminals. Terminal 1 is used for all domestic flights. Terminals 2 and 3 handle international flights (both Schengen and non-Schengen) and share a common airside passenger concourse as well as the arrivals section – which houses customs and baggage claim and is physically located in Terminal 3. The newest terminal, CPH Go, dedicated to low-cost carriers opened in October 2010. So far EasyJet and Transavia.com are the only airlines operating from this terminal, which is accessed from terminal 2. An all new Terminal 4 is currently being planned but no firm decision have been taken as of December 2012.

Airlines and destinations

Norwegian Air Shuttle Boeing 737-300 taxiing at Copenhagen Airport

Estonian Air Boeing 737-300 taxiing at Copenhagen Airport

Danish Air Transport ATR 42-300 landing at Copenhagen Airport

TUIfly Nordic Boeing 737-800 taxiing at Copenhagen Airport

Scandinavian Airlines Airbus A330-300 taxiing for takeoff from Copenhagen Airport

Airlines	Destinations	Terminal
Adria Airways	Ljubljana	2
Aegean Airlines	Athens (begins 22 May 2014)	2
Aer Lingus	Dublin	2
Aeroflot	Moscow-Sheremetyevo	2
airBaltic	Riga	2
Air Berlin	Berlin-Tegel, Düsseldorf Seasonal: Palma de Mallorca	2
Air Canada	Toronto-Pearson	3
Air France	Paris-Charles de Gaulle Seasonal: Marseille	2
Air Greenland	Kangerlussuaq	2
Air Greenland operated by Jet Time	Seasonal: Narsarsuaq	2
Air One	Seasonal: Venice-Marco Polo	2
Air Serbia	Belgrade	2
Alitalia	Rome-Fiumicino	2
Alsie Express	Sønderborg	1
Atlantic Airways	Vágar	2
Austrian Airlines operated by Tyrolean Airways	Vienna Seasonal: Innsbruck	3
B&H Airlines	Sarajevo-International	2
British Airways	London-Heathrow	2
Brussels Airlines	Brussels	2
Croatia Airlines	Zagreb	2
Czech Airlines	Prague	2
Danish Air Transport	Bornholm	1
Danish Air Transport	Norrköping	2
Delta Air Lines	Seasonal: New York-JFK	2
easyJet	Berlin-Schönefeld, Bristol, Edinburgh, Hamburg (begins 1 April 2014), Lisbon (ends 8 April 2014), London-Gatwick, London-Stansted, Manchester, Milan-Malpensa, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Rome-Fiumicino	CPH Go1
easyJet Switzerland	Basel/Mulhouse, Geneva	CPH Go1
EgyptAir	Cairo	3
Emirates	Dubai-International	3
Estonian Air	Tallinn	3
Finnair	Helsinki	2
Iberia Express	Madrid	2
Icelandair	Reykjavik-Keflavík	3
Iran Air	Tehran-Imam Khomeini (Suspended)	2
Iraqi Airways	Baghdad, Erbil	2
Jet Time	Charter: Aqaba, Antalya, Bodrum, Bourgas, Chambéry, Chania, Corfu, Dalaman, Dubrovnik, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, Grenoble, Heraklion, Hurghada, Innsbruck, Izmir, Kangerlussuaq, Kefalonia, Kos, Larnaca, Malaga, Malta, Marsa Alam, Palma de Mallorca, Ponte Delgada, Rhodes, Salzburg, Samos, Sharm el-Sheikh, Skiathos, Tenerife-South,	3
KLM	Amsterdam	2
KLM operated by KLM Cityhopper	Amsterdam	2
LOT Polish Airlines	Warsaw-Chopin	3
Lufthansa	Frankfurt, Munich	3
Lufthansa Regional operated by Lufthansa CityLine	Munich	3
Luxair	Luxembourg	2
Middle East Airlines	Seasonal: Beirut	2
Montenegro Airlines	Seasonal: Podgorica	2
Niki	Vienna Seasonal: Innsbruck, Salzburg	2
Norwegian Air Shuttle	Aalborg, Karup	1
Norwegian Air Shuttle	Alicante, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Bergen, Berlin-Schönefeld, Budapest, Dubai-International, Dublin, Edinburgh, Faro, Fort Lauderdale, Funchal, Gran Canaria, Helsinki, Kraków, Lisbon, Liverpool (ends 28 March 2014), London-Gatwick, Los Angeles (begins 1 March 2014), Madrid, Málaga, Marrakech, Milan-Malpensa, New York-JFK (begins 28 February 2014), Nice, Oslo-Gardermoen, Paris-Orly, Prague, Riga, Rome-Fiumicino, Stockholm-Arlanda, Tel Aviv-Ben Gurion (begins March 30, 2014), Trondheim Seasonal: Agadir, Athens, Belgrade, Bratislava, Burgas, Catania, Chania, Corfu, Dubrovnik, Grenoble, Heraklion, Ibiza, Kos, Larnaca, Malta, Marseille, Montpellier, Olbia, Palma de Mallorca, Pisa, Rhodes, Salzburg, Sarajevo, Split, Tenerife-South, Venice-Marco Polo, Zagreb	2
Pakistan International Airlines	Islamabad, Lahore	2
Pegasus Airlines	Antalya, Istanbul-Sabiha Gökcen	2
Qatar Airways	Doha	2
Royal Air Maroc	Casablanca	2
Scandinavian Airlines4	Aalborg, Aarhus, Billund	1
Scandinavian Airlines4	Aberdeen, Ålesund, Alicante, Amsterdam, Athens, Barcelona, Beijing-Capital, Bergen, Berlin-Tegel, Birmingham, Bologna, Bremen, Brussels, Bucharest, Budapest, Chicago-O'Hare, Dublin, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Gdańsk, Geneva, Gothenburg-Landvetter, Hamburg, Hannover, Helsinki, Humberside, Kristiansand-Kjevik, Leeds/Bradford (begins 31 March 2014), Linköping (begins 30 March 2014), London-Heathrow, Luxembourg, Madrid, Málaga, Manchester, Milan-Linate, Milan-Malpensa, Moscow-Sheremetyevo, Munich, Newark, Newcastle, Nice, Oslo-Gardermoen, Palanga, Palma de Mallorca, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Poznań, Prague, Pristina, Rome-Fiumicino, Saint Petersburg, San Francisco, Shanghai-Pudong, Stavanger, Stockholm-Arlanda, Stuttgart, Tel Aviv-Ben Gurion, Tokyo-Narita, Trondheim, Turku, Vaasa, Venice-Marco Polo, Vilnius, Warsaw-Chopin, Washington-Dulles, Wrocław, Zürich Seasonal: Bangkok-Suvarnabhumi, Bastia (begins 2 July 2014), Biarritz, Cagliari, Chania (begins 30 June 2014), Dubrovnik, Faro (begins 2 July), Gazipaşa, Ivalo, Kaliningrad, Kiruna, Montpellier (begins 28 June), Naples (begins 1 July), Kittilä, Palermo, Pisa (begins 28 June), Pristina, Pula, Split, Thessaloniki	3
Singapore Airlines	Singapore	3
Swiss International Air Lines	Geneva (begins 13 April 2014), Zürich	2
TAP Portugal	Lisbon	2
Thai Airways	Bangkok-Suvarnabhumi Seasonal: Phuket2	3
Thomson Airways	Seasonal: Montego Bay (begins 24 December 2014)
Transavia.com	Seasonal: Eindhoven	CPH Go1
Turkish Airlines	Konya, Istanbul-Atatürk	2
Vueling	Alicante, Barcelona, Malaga Seasonal: Florence	2
Widerøe	Bergen, Haugesund, Kristiansand, Molde, Sandefjord	3
WOW air	Reykjavík-Keflavík	2

Notes

^1 Check-in via Terminal 2. ^2 2 weekly flights from Copenhagen to Bangkok via Phuket. No direct flight in the other way – from Phuket to Copenhagen. ^3 Limited number of flight to Bergen via Sandefjord. ^4 Some flight operated by Blue1, Cimber Air, or Jet Time.

Destination maps

Scandinavian destinations map

Copenhagen Göteborg Landvetter Aalborg Karup Sønderborg Ronne Nörrkoping Stockholm-Arlanda Oslo-Gardermoen Helsinki Bergen Stavanger Oslo-Torp Trondheim Aarhus Billund Aalesund Kristiansand Linköping Turku Vaasa Kittilä Ivalo Kiruna Molde Haugesund class=notpageimage| Scandinavian and Domestic destinations from Copenhagen International Airport "Kastrup"; Red: All-year round destinations, Blue: Seasonal destinations, Yellow: Future destinations

Greenland destinations map
Narsarsuaq Kangerlussuaq Thule class=notpageimage| Greenland destinations from Copenhagen International Airport "Kastrup"; Red: All-year round destinations, Blue: Seasonal destinations, Yellow: Future destinations, Green: Charter flights

European destinations map

Copenhagen Faro Lisbon Funchal Krakow Malaga Alicante Bratislava Bourgas Catania Chania Corfu Heraklion Grenoble Montpellier Olbia Pisa Antalya Ibiza Rhodes Samos Santorini Skiathos Kos Kavala Ljubljana Aberdeen Newcastle Bologna Bremen Gdansk Humberside Leeds/Bradford Palanga Milan-LIN Poznan Vilnius Wroclaw Florence Biarritz Cagliari Alanya Kaliningrad Thessaloniki Pula Palermo Bastia Palma de Mallorca Innsbruck Salzburg Sarajevo Ankara Konya Bristol Basel/Mulhouse Tallinn Podgorica Pristina Luxembourg Athens Larnaca Düsseldorf Munich Stuttgart London-LGW Berlin-SXF Belgrade Istanbul-IST Budapest Bucharest Paris-CDG Skt. Petersburg Tel Aviv-TLV Chambery Rome-FCO Brussels-BRU Prague Moscow-SVO Manchester Madrid Barcelona Riga Malta Naples Milan-MXP Marseille Nice Amsterdam Vienna Edinburgh London LHR Geneva Zurich Warsaw Dublin Dubrovnik Beirut Zagreb Paris Orly Frankfurt Berlin-TXL Venice Sabiha Gökçen London-STN Hanover Eindhoven Split Birmingham Hamburg Reykjavik Vagar class=notpageimage| Europe destinations from Copenhagen International Airport "Kastrup"; Red: All-year round destinations, Blue: Seasonal destinations, Yellow: Future destinations, Green: Charter flights

Asian destinations map
Dubai Bangkok Phuket Doha Beijing Singapore Tokyo Shanghai Lahore Islamabad Baghdad Erbil Krabi Aqaba class=notpageimage| Asian destinations from Copenhagen International Airport "Kastrup"; Red: All-year round destinations, Blue: Seasonal destinations, Yellow: Future destinations, Green: Charter flights

North American destinations map
Newark New York-JFK Fort Lauderdale Punta Caña St. Croix Barbados Cancun Washington Dulles Chicago O'Hare Toronto San Francisco Los Angeles Aruba class=notpageimage| North American and Caribbean destinations from Copenhagen International Airport "Kastrup"; Red: All-year round destinations, Blue: Seasonal destinations, Yellow: Future destinations, Green: Charter flights

African and Canaries destinations map
Cairo Casablanca Marrakech Banjul Sal Island Praia Sharm el Sheik Agadir Tenerife South Gran Canaria Lanzarote Funchal class=notpageimage| African and Spanish Island destinations from Copenhagen International Airport "Kastrup"; Red: All-year round destinations, Blue: Seasonal destinations, Yellow: Future destinations, Green: Charter flights

Statistics

Busiest routes by passenger traffic (2013)

Destination	Airport(s)	Passengers
London	LGW, LHR, STN	1,637,520
Oslo	OSL, TRF	1,410,384
Stockholm	ARN, BMA	1,309,198
Aalborg	AAL	893,882
Paris	CDG, ORY	845,000
Amsterdam	AMS	822,858
Helsinki	HEL	777,804
Frankfurt	FRA	644,956
Berlin	SXF, TXL	527,191
Brussels	BRU	481,878
Zürich	ZRH	425,176
Vienna	VIE	424,472
Münich	MUC	398,379
Bergen	BGO	382,375
Milan	MXP	379,786
Reykjavik	KEF	379,302
Bangkok	BKK	372,069
Istanbul	IST, SAW	367,859
Barcelona	BCN	351,971
New York	JFK, EWR	264,687
Dubai	DXB	204,394
Lisbon	LIS	199,974
Antalya	AYT	182,108
Doha	DOH	156,492
Moscow	SVO	152,398

Other facilities

SAS traffic office resides at the airport, and so do Cimber Sterling's. Thomas Cook Airlines has both its head- and traffic office here as well as a flight simulator centre. All these reside at Copenhagen Airport South and in Dragør, Dragør Municipality together with a VIP-terminal. The VIP-terminal building is actually the very first terminal building, from the 1920s. It was moved about 2 km during the 1990s.

Ground transport

Train towards Copenhagen Central Station at the Copenhagen Airport train station.

The airport can be accessed in various ways:

• Rail – the airport's station is located underneath Terminal 3 on the Øresund Railway Line.
  • The station is served by Øresundstogene which are operated by DSBFirst. These trains have a dense stopping pattern insde Denmark, like local trains, going to the city centre and to Helsingør. They also go as regional/interregional trains to Sweden, to Malmö, Gothenburg, Kalmar and Karlskrona, with many intermediate stops.
  • DSB, the national Danish operator have InterCity and InterCityExpress trains using this station, going to domestic cities such as Esbjerg, Århus, Ålborg and Sønderborg or German Flensburg just by the border, and to Ystad in Sweden with a connecting ferry to the Danish island Bornholm
  • Also Swedish SJ have a few daily Express trains departures between Copenhagen central station to Stockholm and Gothenburg which stops at Kastrup underground train station.
• Metro – Line M2 of the Copenhagen Metro links the airport with the city centre. The Metro station is two floors above the underground rail station and continues on elevated tracks until it goes underground after 5 stations.
• Bus – Movia buses 5A, 35, 36 and Gråhundbus line 999 all stop at the airport; bus 888, express-bus to Jutland, also stops at the airport. Movia bus 2A stops near the airport. There are long-distance buses to Sweden and Norway operated by Swebus: 820 to Oslo via Gothenburg and 832 to Uppsala via Stockholm. GoByBus and Bus4You also operate the same routes.
• Motorway – the E20 runs right by the airport. The E20 uses the toll road Øresund Bridge to Sweden. The airport has 8,600 parking spaces. Customers can pre-book their parking space online by visiting the Copenhagen Airport website [2].

Incidents and accidents

A Douglas Dakota, similar to the KLM aircraft that crashed in 1947.

• 26 January 1947 (1947-01-26): Douglas Dakota, PH-TCR of KLM crashed after takeoff from Copenhagen, killing all 22 onboard, including Prince Gustaf Adolf of Sweden. The delayed KLM flight from Amsterdam had landed at Copenhagen for a routine stop before continuing to Stockholm. Soon after the Douglas DC-3 aircraft took off, it climbed to an altitude of about 50 metres (150 feet), stalled, and plummeted nose-first to the ground where it exploded on impact. Also aboard the ill-fated flight was American singer and actress Grace Moore. The investigation showed that the crash had been caused by a forgotten elevator gust lock. Short of time, the captain never performed his checklist and took off not realizing the lock was still in place.
• 17 November 1957 (1957-11-17): Vickers Viscount G-AOHP of British European Airways crashed at Ballerup after the failure of three engines on approach to Copenhagen Airport. The cause was a malfunction of the anti-icing system on the aircraft.
• 28 August 1971 (1971-08-28): a Malév Ilyushin Il-18, HA-MOC crashed into the sea while executing an instrument approach. The main cause of the accident was microburst, a particularly dangerous and unpredictable meteorological phenomenon. 23 passengers and the crew of 9 died. 2 passengers survived. The captain of the plane was World War II flying ace of the Royal Hungarian Air Force, Dezső Szentgyörgyi. He was due to retire in less than 3 weeks.

See also

• List of airports in Denmark
• List of the busiest airports in the Nordic countries

References

 This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency

• AIP Denmark: Koebenhavn/Kastrup – EKCH
• VFR Flight Guide Denmark: Koebenhavn/Kastrup – EKCH

External links

Media related to Copenhagen Airport at Wikimedia Commons

• Official website