Copenhagen Airport announced an expansion plan today that would see the number of passengers passing through the facility nearly double from 24 million to 40 million each year.
“This is not a pipe dream,” Thomas Woldbye, head of the airport, told DR Nyheder. “This is a concrete expansion plan based on detailed preparation work.”
The 40 million passenger goal won’t be realised before 2035, but construction will start next year.
The international terminal is the first slated for growth, with more gates being added for international flights. Woldbye said that the airport’s physical size cannot be increased, so the existing site will have to be optimised.
“We have enough runway capacity to support many more passengers,” said Woldby. “Our bottleneck happens at the terminals, gates and on the piers.”
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More passengers
Air traffic at Copenhagen Airport is expected to increase dramatically. Studies suggest that the number of passengers will double in the next 20 years, and Woldbye said that increased and better facilities will entice more routes and customers to choose Copenhagen.
“We have to run very fast just to maintain our current market share, and this plan will help us run just a bit faster.”
The airport estimates that the proposed extensions will cost about a billion kroner annually to operate. Woldbye said that increased traffic and customers would help cover those costs.
