“This is very good news for the airport, for Copenhagen and for Denmark,” said Thomas Woldbye, CEO of Copenhagen Airports A/S, about the decision of Finnish-based Blue1 to use Copenhagen as a gateway from Finland to destinations in Europe and the rest of the world.
“With 300,000 additional passengers travelling through Copenhagen Airport per year, we will generate growth at Copenhagen and strengthen the sustainability of our many European and intercontinental routes. And, not least, we will strengthen the position of Copenhagen Airport as an important northern European traffic hub,” said Thomas Woldbye.
DKK 135 million of additional revenue for Copenhagen
Blue 1’s decision is good news for the Danish capital region. About 50,000 more tourists are expected from Finland – almost twice the current number. This will generate additional sales in Copenhagen of around DKK 135 million per year and create 175 new jobs in the tourism industry – which is good news according to incoming tourism organisation Wonderful Copenhagen and the Danish Minister for Trade and Investments, Pia Olsen Dyhr.
“New air services to Copenhagen are great generators of growth in Denmark by way of more tourists, sales and jobs. The Danish government has started a project to strengthen tourism in Denmark, and the many new air services to and from Finland are very important contributors to this,” said Pia Olsen Dyhr.
At Wonderful Copenhagen, CEO Lars Bernhard Jørgensen looks forward to helping make it more attractive to tourists and business travellers from Finland to use the many things Copenhagen has to offer.
More opportunities
Stefan Wentjärvi, CEO of Blue1, emphasises that with 134 European and intercontinental routes, Copenhagen Airport offers more than twice as many connections as Helsinki Airport. That was one of the main arguments for moving the company’s traffic to Copenhagen.
“Today, passengers travelling from Finnish provincial airports to international destinations have to change flights at Helsinki, which has only half as many European and intercontinental routes as Copenhagen. By flying to Copenhagen instead, Finnish travellers will have a much wider range of connections available to them. For instance, business travellers can leave home later and be back earlier and still have a full working day in one of the major cities of Europe, for instance in London,” said Stefan Wentjärvi.
SAS, the owner of Blue1, calls the decision a major strengthening of the airline’s route network out of Copenhagen.
“The new routes from Finland to Copenhagen will feed a lot of leisure and business passengers into the extensive SAS and Star Alliance network in Europe and the rest of the world. At the same time, the new routes will save both time and money for the passengers,” said Per Møller Jensen, Vice President Brand, Marketing and EuroBonus i SAS.”
Source: Copenhagen Airports