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Billund Airport

Coordinates: 55°44′25″N 009°09′07″E / 55.74028°N 9.15194°E / 55.74028; 9.15194
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Billund Airport
Billund Lufthavn
Summary
Airport typePublic
OperatorBillund Lufthavn A/S
ServesMid and Southern Denmark and Funen
LocationBillund Municipality, Denmark
Opened1 November 1964 (1964-11-01)
Hub forSun-Air of Scandinavia
(on behalf of British Airways) Maersk Air Cargo
Elevation AMSL247 ft / 75 m
Coordinates55°44′25″N 009°09′07″E / 55.74028°N 9.15194°E / 55.74028; 9.15194
Websitebll.dk
Map
BLL is located in Denmark
BLL
BLL
Location in Denmark
Runways
Direction Length Surface
m ft
09/27 3,100 10,172 Asphalt
Statistics (2019)
Passengers3,739,267 Increase6.6%
Source: AIP[1]

Billund Airport (Danish: Billund Lufthavn) (IATA: BLL, ICAO: EKBI) is an international airport in Denmark. Located 1 nautical mile (1.9 km; 1.2 mi) northeast[1] of Billund, it serves as one of the country's busiest air cargo centres, as well as a charter airline destination. It is the 10th busiest airport in the Nordic countries.

History

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Check-in hall

Early years

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Billund Airport had its beginning in 1961 when the son of the founder of the Lego Group, Godtfred Kirk Christiansen, established a private 800-meter long runway and hangar north of his factory in Billund. With Christiansen as a key driver, more of the neighbouring municipalities were included in the group of owners, and it was planned that the airport should be expanded to a regular public airport.[2]

The construction of the new airport was carried out during 1964 and the airport opened on 1 November, with one runway at 1660 meters in length and 45 meters width, a small platform where aircraft could be served, and a control tower.[3] Hans Erik Christensen, the former chief pilot at Lego, became director, and the passengers were handled in Lego's hangar until the first terminal building was opened in the spring of 1966.[2] The airport was continuously expanded in the following years, with new facilities, terminal buildings, lounge, tax-free area, and hangars where LC Johansen's studio often participated as an architect (today called Johannsen Architects), while other work was carried out by the airport's own studio.[2]

In 1997, they had an architectural competition for a new 430,000 ft2 (40,000 m2) passenger terminal, designed to serve 3.5 million passengers a year, north of the original airport. KHR Architects won the assignment and completed the construction in co-operation with COWI, and at the end of May 2002 the new passenger terminal was put to use, as the first phase of the future expansion, which is scheduled to take place north of the start and runway, while air cargo services, business and private aviation will continue to be served from the existing buildings south of the runway.[4] In connection with this expansion, the largest since the beginning of the airport, it was with effect from 1 January 1997 turned into a joint-stock company, Billund Airport A/S, with the former members Vejle County and municipalities Vejle, Kolding, Grindsted, Billund, and Give as shareholders.[2]

Development since the 2000s

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In 2014, Lego produced a limited Lego Architecture set of Billund Airport, which could only be bought in the departure hall's Lego store. In 2018, a new version of this set was released, again in limited quantities.[5]

A new terminal was slated to open in the fall of 2019.[6] It cost more than 100 million Danish kroner.[citation needed]

In late 2023, a theatre opened at the airport.[7]

Corporate affairs

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In 2007, Vejle County was abolished after a municipality reform. Its 50% shareholding was then distributed among municipalities in the county leading to the following ownership:[8]

Ownership distribution of Billund Airport
Owner Percentage of shares
Vejle municipality 34.3%
Kolding municipality 25.9%
Billund municipality 15%
Horsens municipality 10.7%
Fredericia municipality 6.9%
Hedensted municipality 6.1%
Ikast-Brande municipality 1%
Billund Airport 0.1%[9]

Capabilities

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The airport handles an average of more than three million passengers a year, and millions of pounds of cargo. The airport's main runway can handle airliners as large as the Boeing 747, although most passengers arrive on smaller aeroplanes, such as ATR-72s, Boeing 737s and Airbus A320s. Boeing 747 activity at this airport is almost exclusively limited to cargo flights.[citation needed]

Airlines and destinations

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Passenger

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The following airlines operate regular scheduled and charter flights to and from Billund:[10]

AirlinesDestinations
Air France Paris–Charles de Gaulle[11]
Air Greenland Seasonal: Nuuk[12]
airBaltic Riga[13]
Seasonal: Gran Canaria,[14] Tallinn[15]
Atlantic Airways Vágar[16]
Seasonal charter: Ioannina[17]
Austrian Airlines Seasonal: Innsbruck[18]
British Airways London–Heathrow[19]
DAT Seasonal: Bornholm[20]
Finnair Seasonal: Helsinki[21]
KLM Amsterdam[22]
LOT Polish Airlines Warsaw–Chopin[23]
Lufthansa Frankfurt[24]
Norwegian Air Shuttle Alicante,[25] Barcelona (begins 1 April 2026),[26] Bergamo (begins 2 April 2026),[27] Edinburgh (begins 3 April 2026),[28] Gran Canaria (begins 30 March 2026),[29] London–Gatwick,[30] Málaga,[31] Oslo,[32] Rome–Fiumicino (begins 3 April 2026),[33]
Seasonal: Chania (begins 2 May 2026),[34] Malta (begins 3 June 2026),[35] Naples (begins 7 April 2026),[36] Nice (begins 12 June 2026),[37] Palma de Mallorca,[38] Porto (begins 28 April 2026)[39]
Pegasus Airlines Antalya[40]
Scandinavian Airlines Copenhagen,[41] Oslo,[42] Stockholm–Arlanda[43]
SunExpress Seasonal: Antalya[44]
Turkish Airlines Istanbul[45]
Volotea Seasonal: Lyon[46]
Widerøe Seasonal: Bergen[47]
Wizz Air Bucharest–Otopeni,[48] Budapest (begins 29 March 2026),[49] Chișinău,[50] Cluj-Napoca,[51] Gdańsk,[52] Iași,[53] Katowice,[54] Tirana (begins 3 March 2026),[55] Vilnius[56]

Cargo

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AirlinesDestinations
DHL Aviation Leipzig/Halle[57]
Maersk Air Cargo Ezhou,[58] Hangzhou[58]
Turkish Cargo Istanbul[57]

Statistics

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PassengersYear01,000,0002,000,0003,000,0004,000,00019601970198019902000201020202030PassengersAnnual passenger traffic

Ground transport

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The road distance is to Billund 3 kilometres (2 mi), to Vejle 28 kilometres (17 mi), to Kolding 41 kilometres (25 mi), to Esbjerg 61 kilometres (38 mi) and to Aarhus 98 kilometres (61 mi). There are airport buses to Horsens, Skanderborg and Aarhus as well as Vejle, Give, Kolding and Esbjerg.[citation needed]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b "EKBI – Billund" (PDF). AIP Denmark. Copenhagen: Trafikstyrelsen/Danish Transport Authority. 28 June 2012. part AD 2 – EKBI. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 May 2012. Retrieved 9 September 2012.
  2. ^ a b c d "The Airport on the Moor". Historisk Atlas. Retrieved 23 June 2024.
  3. ^ "Youngstown Vindicator". No. LXXVI SO. 79. Youngstown Vindicator. 18 November 1964.
  4. ^ "KHR: Billund Airport Project". khr.dk. Retrieved 23 June 2024.
  5. ^ "New version of Billund Airport now available". Brickset.com. 26 May 2018.
  6. ^ "Nyheder 24 timer i døgnet - seneste nyt - jp - jyllands-posten.dk".
  7. ^ "Mission & Vision – Det Flyvende Teater". Retrieved 17 April 2024.
  8. ^ "Facts". Billund Airport. Retrieved 2 July 2023.
  9. ^ Own shares
  10. ^ billund-airport.com - Timetables Archived 11 August 2017 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 26 February 2017
  11. ^ "Paris". bll.dk. Retrieved 12 December 2025.
  12. ^ "Grønland". bll.dk. Retrieved 12 December 2025.
  13. ^ "Riga". bll.dk. Retrieved 12 December 2025.
  14. ^ "AirBaltic to Base Aircraft in the Canary Islands for Winter". 14 June 2023.
  15. ^ Orban, André (29 August 2023). "airBaltic announces 11 new routes in Summer 2024". Aviation24.
  16. ^ "Atlantic Airways announces scheduled flights to 10 destinations for 2022". Aviation24.be. 20 October 2021. Retrieved 31 October 2024.
  17. ^ "Apollo Rejser - Bestil ferie-rejser til hele verden på apollorejser.dk".
  18. ^ "København og Billund er med i ny Innsbruck-offensiv". check-in.dk. Retrieved 12 December 2025.
  19. ^ "London". bll.dk. Retrieved 12 December 2025.
  20. ^ "Bornholm". bll.dk. Retrieved 12 December 2025.
  21. ^ "Flights to Billund". Finnair. 22 January 2023. Retrieved 22 January 2023.
  22. ^ "Amsterdam". bll.dk. Retrieved 12 December 2025.
  23. ^ "Warszawa". bll.dk. Retrieved 12 December 2025.
  24. ^ "Frankfurt". bll.dk. Retrieved 12 December 2025.
  25. ^ "Alicante". bll.dk. Retrieved 12 December 2025.
  26. ^ "Norwegian launches 10 new routes from Billund Airport". October 2025.
  27. ^ "Norwegian launches 10 new routes from Billund Airport". October 2025.
  28. ^ "Norwegian launches 10 new routes from Billund Airport". October 2025.
  29. ^ "Norwegian launches 10 new routes from Billund Airport". October 2025.
  30. ^ "London". bll.dk. Retrieved 12 December 2025.
  31. ^ "Malaga". bll.dk. Retrieved 12 December 2025.
  32. ^ "November 2023". OAG Flight Guide Worldwide. 25 (5). Luton, United Kingdom: OAG Aviation Worldwide Limited: 793–797. ISSN 1466-8718.
  33. ^ "Norwegian launches 10 new routes from Billund Airport". October 2025.
  34. ^ "Norwegian launches 10 new routes from Billund Airport". October 2025.
  35. ^ "Norwegian launches 10 new routes from Billund Airport". October 2025.
  36. ^ "Norwegian launches 10 new routes from Billund Airport". October 2025.
  37. ^ "Norwegian launches 10 new routes from Billund Airport". October 2025.
  38. ^ "Mallorca". bll.dk. Retrieved 12 December 2025.
  39. ^ "Norwegian launches 10 new routes from Billund Airport". October 2025.
  40. ^ "Antalya, Turkiye". OAG Flight Guide Worldwide. 25 (2). Luton, United Kingdom: OAG Aviation Worldwide Limited: 50–53. August 2023. ISSN 1466-8718.
  41. ^ "SAS åbner Billund og 13 andre ruter". 18 September 2024.
  42. ^ "Oslo". bll.dk. Retrieved 12 December 2025.
  43. ^ "Stockholm". bll.dk. Retrieved 12 December 2025.
  44. ^ "Antalya". bll.dk. Retrieved 12 December 2025.
  45. ^ "Istanbul". bll.dk. Retrieved 12 December 2025.
  46. ^ "Volotea renforce sa présence à Lyon avec une nouvelle liaison vers le Danemark". 17 July 2025.
  47. ^ "Bergen". OAG Flight Guide Worldwide. 25 (5). Luton, United Kingdom: OAG Aviation Worldwide Limited: 122–123. November 2023. ISSN 1466-8718.
  48. ^ "Bucharest, Romania BUH". OAG Flight Guide Worldwide. 26 (11). Luton, United Kingdom: OAG Aviation Worldwide Limited: 184–186. May 2025. ISSN 1466-8718. OCLC 41608313.
  49. ^ "Udvidelsen fortsætter: NY rute fra Billund åbner til europæisk hovedstad | jv.dk". 17 October 2025.
  50. ^ "Endnu en ny Wizz Air-destination fra Billund". 19 March 2025.
  51. ^ "Wizz Air åbner ny rute fra Billund". 22 May 2025.
  52. ^ "Wizz Air er klar med tre nye ruter fra Billund". 13 March 2025.
  53. ^ "Iasi, Romania IAS". OAG Flight Guide Worldwide. 26 (11). Luton, United Kingdom: OAG Aviation Worldwide Limited: 491–491. May 2025. ISSN 1466-8718. OCLC 41608313.
  54. ^ "Wizz Air er klar med tre nye ruter fra Billund". 13 March 2025.
  55. ^ "NY rute åbner fra Billund til europæisk hovedstad | vafo.dk". 9 September 2025.
  56. ^ "Wizz Air er klar med tre nye ruter fra Billund". 13 March 2025.
  57. ^ a b "Cargo".
  58. ^ a b "Maersk Air Cargo udvider i Billund". scm.dk. 16 October 2024. Retrieved 7 January 2025.
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