Little Oslo has passed Mighty Copenhagen in 2020 as the busiest airport in the Nordic countries

Copenhagen Airport, Kastrup (Danish: Københavns Lufthavn, Kastrup, pronounced [kʰøpm̩ˈhɑwns ˈlɔftˌhɑwˀn ˈkʰæˌstʁɔp]; IATA: CPH, ICAO: EKCH) is the main international airport serving Copenhagen, Denmark, the rest of Zealand, the Øresund Region, and a large part of southern Sweden including Scania. It is the largest airport in the Nordic countries with close to 30.3 million passengers in 2019 and one of the oldest international airports in Europe. It is the third-busiest airport in Northern Europe, and the busiest for international travel in Scandinavia.

The airport is located on the island of Amager, 8 kilometres (5 miles) south of Copenhagen city centre, and 24 km (15 mi) west of Malmö city centre, which is connected to Copenhagen via the Øresund Bridge. The airport covers an area of 11.8 km² (4.6 sq mi). Most of the airport is situated in the municipality of Tårnby, with a small portion in the city of Dragør.

The airport is the main hub out of three used by Scandinavian Airlines and is also an operating base for Sunclass Airlines and Norwegian Air Shuttle. Copenhagen Airport handles around 60 scheduled airlines, and has a maximum operation capability of 83 operations/hour, and a total of 108 jet bridges and remote parking stands. Unlike other Scandinavian airports, most of the airport’s passengers are international. In 2015, 6.1% of passengers travelled to and from other Danish airports, 83.5% to/from other European airports, and 10.4% were intercontinental passengers. The airport is owned by Københavns Lufthavne, which also operates Roskilde Airport. The airport employs 1,700 people (not including employees in shops, restaurants, etc.).

Copenhagen Airport was originally called Kastrup Airport, since it is located in the small town of Kastrup, now a part of the Tårnby municipality. The formal name of the airport is still Copenhagen Airport, Kastrup, to distinguish it from Roskilde Airport, whose formal name is Copenhagen Airport, Roskilde.

The airport was inaugurated 20 April 1925 and was one of the first civil airports in the world. It consisted of a large, impressive terminal built of wood, a couple of hangars, a balloon mast, a hydroplane landing stage and a few grassy meadows that could be used as runways. The grass on the runways was kept short by sheep, which were shepherded away before take-offs and landings. From 1932 to 1939, takeoffs and landings increased from 6,000 to 50,000 and passenger number increased to 72,000. Between 1936 and 1939, a new terminal was built, considered one of the finest examples of Nordic functionalism. The terminal was designed by Vilhelm Lauritzen, who was considered a pioneer among architects, in terms not only of architecture and construction, but also of service and passenger comfort.

In the years of World War II, the Copenhagen airport was closed for civil operations except for periodic flights to destinations in Sweden, Germany, and Austria. In the summer of 1941 the first hard-surface runway opened. It was 1,400 metres (4,600 ft) long and 65 m (213 ft) wide. When World War II ended in May 1945, Copenhagen had the most modern international airport in Europe, because the airport remained untouched by actual acts of war.

On 1 August 1947, Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) was founded, an important event for the Copenhagen Airport, as Copenhagen was to be the main hub for the airline. Traffic increased rapidly in the first years SAS operated. On 26 January 1947, a KLM Douglas DC-3 “Dakota” crashed at the airport after stopping en route to Stockholm. 22 people on board died, including the Swedish prince Gustav Adolf and the American opera singer Grace Moore. In 1948 Copenhagen airport was third largest airport in Europe with 150 daily takeoffs and almost 300,000 passengers for the year. The airport continued its rapid growth. The terminal was expanded several times and new hangars were erected.

Read more here: Copenhagen Airport – Wikipedia

This is a list of the 100 busiest airports in the Nordic countries by passengers per year, aircraft movements per year and freight and mail tonnes per year.

The list also includes yearly statistics for the busiest metropolitan airport systems and the busiest air-routes for 2012.

This transport-related list is intended to be regularly updated as new statistics become available from the relevant official authorities.

Nordic countries

Political map of the Nordic countries and associated territories

The Nordic countries make up a region in Northern Europe and the North Atlantic which consists of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden and their associated territories which include the Faroe Islands, Greenland and Åland. “Scandinavia” is sometimes used as a synonym for the Nordic countries, although within the Nordic countries the terms are considered distinct, especially since Scandinavia is by definition made up of the countries Denmark, Norway and Sweden.

The region’s five sovereign states and three autonomous regions share much common history as well as common traits in their respective societies, such as political systems and the Nordic model.

Politically, Nordic countries do not form a separate entity, but they co-operate in the Nordic Council. Linguistically, the area is heterogeneous, with three unrelated language groups, the North Germanic branch of Indo-European languages and the Finnic and Sami branches of Uralic languages as well as the Eskimo–Aleut language Greenlandic spoken in Greenland.

The Nordic countries have a combined population of approximately 27 million spread over a land area of 3.5 million km² (Greenland accounts for 60% of the total area).

2020 statistics

Rank	Country	Airport	City/town/village	Code (IATA/ICAO)	Total passengers	Rank change	Change 2019–2020
1	NOR	Oslo Airport, Gardermoen	Oslo	OSL/ENGM	9,021,729	1	−68.4%
2	DEN	Copenhagen Airport	Copenhagen	CPH/EKCH	7,525,441	1	−75.1%

2019 statistics

Rank	Country	Airport	City/town/village	Code (IATA/ICAO)	Total passengers	Rank change	Change 2018–2019
1	DEN	Copenhagen Airport	Copenhagen	CPH/EKCH	30,256,407		-0.1%
2	NOR	Oslo Airport, Gardermoen	Oslo	OSL/ENGM	28,592,619		+0.3%

2018 statistics

Rank	Country	Airport	City/town/village	Code (IATA/ICAO)	Total passengers	Rank change	Change 2017–2018
1	DEN	Copenhagen Airport	Copenhagen	CPH/EKCH	30,298,428		+3.8%
2	NOR	Oslo Airport, Gardermoen	Oslo	OSL/ENGM	28,516,220		+3.8%

2017 statistics

Rank	Country	Airport	City/town/village	Code (IATA/ICAO)	Total passengers	Rank change	Change 2016–2017
1.	DEN	Copenhagen Airport	Copenhagen	CPH/EKCH	29,177,761		+0.5%
2.	NOR	Oslo Airport, Gardermoen	Oslo	OSL/ENGM	27,479,921		+6.6%

2016 statistics

Rank	Country	Airport	City/town/village	Code (IATA/ICAO)	Total passengers	Rank change	Change 2015–2016
1.	DEN	Copenhagen Airport	Copenhagen	CPH/EKCH	29,043,287		+9.1%
2.	NOR	Oslo Airport, Gardermoen	Oslo	OSL/ENGM	25,787,691		+4.5%

2015 statistics

Rank	Country	Airport	City/town/village	Code (IATA/ICAO)	Total passengers	Rank change	Change 2014–2015
1.	DEN	Copenhagen Airport	Copenhagen	CPH/EKCH	26,610,332		+3.8%
2.	NOR	Oslo Airport, Gardermoen	Oslo	OSL/ENGM	24,678,195		+1.7%

2014 statistics

Rank	Country	Airport	City/town/village	Code (IATA/ICAO)	Total passengers	Rank change	Change 2013–2014
1.	DEN	Copenhagen Airport	Copenhagen	CPH/EKCH	25,627,093		+6.5%
2.	NOR	Oslo Airport	Oslo	OSL/ENGM	24,269,235		+5.7%

2013 statistics

Rank	Country	Airport	City/town/village	Code (IATA/ICAO)	Total passengers	Rank change	Change 2012–2013
1.	DEN	Copenhagen Airport	Copenhagen	CPH/EKCH	24,066,917		+3.1%
2.	NOR	Oslo Airport	Oslo	OSL/ENGM	22,956,544		+4.0%

2012 statistics

Rank	Country	Airport	City/town/village	Code (IATA/ICAO)	Total passengers	Rank change	Change 2011–2012
1.	DEN	Copenhagen Airport	Copenhagen	CPH/EKCH	23,334,939		+2.7%
2.	NOR	Oslo Airport	Oslo	OSL/ENGM	22,080,433		+4.6%

Read more here: List of the busiest airports in the Nordic countries – Wikipedia