More Danes spend Christmas abroad

Record many also used carpooling service to get home for Xmas

More and more Danes spend Christmas holidays abroad, according to figures from Copenhagen Airport.

The UK and Spain are the most popular destinations in Europe, while Thailand and the US top the list among countries outside the Old Continent.

In the past four years, the number of flights taken in the period December 21-31 to foreign countries has grown by 24 percent.

READ MORE: Danes escaping rainy weather to sunny Mallorca

Sunbathing in Florida
The United States and Florida, in particular, have become very popular in recent years.

Copenhagen Airport has registered a 102-percent increase in the number of travellers flying from the Danish capital to various US destinations since 2011.

Nikolai Johnsen from the travel agency TUI estimates the Danes will buy about 50,000 Xmas holiday packages this winter, which is an increase of 25 percent compared to 2013.

Similarly, the travel search engine Momondo this year recorded twice as many searches on December 23 compared to 2014 – mostly for trips to big cities such as Paris, London, Istanbul, Budapest and Bucharest.

READ MORE: Sharing: both economically sparing and environmentally caring

Carpooling home for Xmas
Meanwhile, record many people used the service of the Danish carpooling company GoMore on December 23.

Over 5,000 Danes booked the service this year, while the figure ranged at 4,500 in 2014.

The vast majority travelled from the metropolitan area to Jutland, said the spokesperson for GoMore, Mikkel Marius Winther.

Some 1,500 people use the carpooling service on an average weekday.