Aarhus Airport Sets Impressive First-Half Performance at Mid-Point of 2023

Traffic figures for the first half of 2023 bounce back with soaring customer numbers

Through the first six months of 2023 a record-breaking number of guests have passed through Denmark’s Aarhus Airport, with a stellar developing trend experienced between the first and second quarters

“It’s very exciting and quite extraordinary”, commented David Surley – senior director responsible for air traffic development and marketing at Aarhus Airport, “we anticipated year-on-year growth to evolve this summer, but the peak summer travel period is only now commencing and we have already broken all previous records on monthly, quarterly and half-year passenger numbers to-date in 2023. Our teams are working hard to delight guests in our fantastic new terminal, we have been recruiting, training, refining and scaling-up for the busiest period in the airport’s history with stronger-than-ever customer demand”.

The first six months of the year have flown by at high altitude, firmly setting a national benchmark again as Denmark’s fastest growing international airport, not only growing explosively, but similarly clearing all previous records off the table. To-date, for the first half of 2023 the airport secured a +47% year-on year total traffic growth while within that, international traffic climbed by an extraordinary +63%, representing an +18.5% increase compared to 2019. In the month of June alone, the passenger numbers for travelers to/from international destinations recorded an increase of +61% compared to 2022 and +43% versus June 2019. The combined monthly total increased +43% year-on-year versus 2022 and +15% versus 2019.

“The number of both leisure and business travelers using the airport is increasing strongly and this is fully in line with our ambition to accelerate overall connectivity in and out of the Greater Aarhus metropolitan area, reflective of Aarhus being mainland Denmark’s largest growth pole and greatly in need of better and better worldwide reach. Delivering capacity for this combined demand is our purpose”, says Lotta Sandsgaard, CEO of Aarhus Airport, “as gateway to the Nordic region’s fifth largest population catchment of over 1.4 million and growing in the Greater Aarhus metropolitan area.”

Among recent developments Aarhus Airport has welcomed new routes with Ryanair to Faro and Palma de Mallorca. Sunclass Airlines (in-house carrier of tour operator Spies) also started Mallorca and opens Las Palmas Gran Canaria from the autumn, operated by BRA – Braathens International Airways, while the Swedish airline itself began its own service to Visby on Gotland island today – the first such service from Denmark. Added capacity on well-established markets like London and Gdansk has also arrived this summer due and Naples will be a new seasonal destination this autumn. SAS is set to expand service to its Oslo hub next month and vacation spots including Sharm el Sheikh, Hurghada and Cyprus also see greater seat capacity ahead.

“The summer’s sunshine routes are busy from the word ‘go’, there is a visible vacation get-away vibe in the terminal and rumours of slower than normal demand for the Mediterranean at other Danish airports are simply not the case here in Aarhus”, added the airport’s David Surley. “By contrast, here we have seen a stellar increase in sunshine travel depsite the pleasant May and June weather. We can also see a very sharp turn-around in historic leakage and strong take-up of our newly opened routes. An absolute u-turn in customer behaviour is happening, we can see where many have driven on average around 4-hours to reach other airports in the past, even to Germany, instead they are now enjoying just a short trip to the airport and easy flights direct from their doorstep”.

Traffic growth both to as well as from Aarhus forms part of the rocket-like upward curve for half-year passenger numbers. A fast-developing trend on international flight services has seen the quarterly passenger volume rise from a state of level post-pandemic traffic recovery and status quo versus 2019 in quarter one, to a situation of explosive monthly traffic growth during quarter two, now standing at +59% trend year-on-year for the 2nd quarter and +39% versus pre-pandemic Q2 2019.

“Aarhus Airport is the gateway for Denmark’s second city and our excellent mid-year traffic figures reflect the high convenience and take-up rate of being located amid a major metropolitan area on-the-rise. The city of Aarhus is increasingly developing its position as a strong destination, for business tourism too, recently ranked well within the top 100 of the world’s most popular conference locations”, says the airport’s CEO.

David Surley further echoed this, adding, “the city remains in high growth, the region-wide economy is buoyant and a sharp development in related hotel capacity is on the way. We’ve even opened our own in-terminal hotel in recent months and looking ahead with stakeholders, we anticipate increasing demand from all angles – from shipping and cruise lines, to conferences, academic and group travel as well, with almost all market opportunities back in growth. Points both closer-to-home and further afield are targeted for service – to south and central Europe, also Türkiye, North America and more distant hubs, where Aarhus is the largest metropolitan market by far in Nordic Europe yet to be connected.

Aarhus Airport and VisitAarhus will welcome delegates of Routes Europe to Aarhus in April 2024 when the city hosts the international airline network community for the European event’s very first time in Denmark.