DENMARK. Copenhagen Airport, the largest air traffic hub in Scandinavia, reached a milestone on 9 April 2006 when the number of passengers passed half a billion since the airport opened in 1925.
The total of 500,000,000 people represents more than the entire population of the European Union.
To mark the event, passenger number 500,000,000 – a member of the Rønne family – was presented with a large Easter egg and a cheque for DEK10,000 to spend on travel.
Copenhagen Airport is one of the oldest airports in the world, and the number of passengers has grown year by year since 1925. Today, some 55,000 passengers pass through the airport every day.
Passenger numbers grew in the last half of the 1980s to almost 13 million passengers a year, and despite the downturn during the Gulf War in 1991, the tally continued to grow in the 1990s.
In 1995, the airport counted 15 million passengers and two years later 17 million. In 1998, the new terminal three was opened, with its railway station and parking facilities.
In the early part of the new millennium, the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001 and later the War in Iraq and the SARS epidemic in Asia had an adverse impact on passenger numbers, but growth resumed in 2004. Last year the number of passengers reached 20 million.
With a growing number of airlines and services to more than 130 destinations, Copenhagen Airport has retained its position as Scandinavia’s largest air traffic hub.
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