Prospects are brightening for
Almost 3.3 million passengers passed through the terminals at
'For this year's first quarter, we're reporting a loss before tax of
Revenue for the first quarter ended at
'Just as we thought we were seeing light at the end of the tunnel, the Omicron variant struck towards the end of November last year. The widespread infections halted our recovery for a couple of months, but already in February things began to improve and the momentum continued in March. By the end of the quarter, six out of ten passengers were back compared to the figure for 2019, and growth has continued since despite war and pandemic,' says
Growing air travel in
The airlines have flights to 135 destinations this summer, mainly in
'European air travel looks set to approach normal levels over the summer, while the recovery is slower on long-haul intercontinental routes - particularly to
A breakdown of the current passenger volume shows that long-haul passengers account for 43% of the traffic shortfall compared with 2019. In addition, traditional popular travel destinations like
More hands needed
More travellers mean more hands are needed at the airport. Copenhagen Airport is still the setting of one of
Now, once again, the companies need to take on more employees. This also applies to CPH after the company had to eliminate 800 jobs. Initially, CPH will hire about 400 people, including 300 for the security checkpoint.
'It's really great news that companies are all hiring again. That's no easy task in a job market under pressure, but there's a lot of interest in helping to rebuild the aviation industry,' says
CPH organised a job fair on 31 March in collaboration with a large number of companies, the Municipality of Tarnby and the
'We had an unusually strong turnout with some 2,200 people attending the job fair in Hangar 145, which goes to show that people take great interest in being a part of the airport's journey,' says
Growing debt
What has proved to be the worst crisis for CPH in living memory is now coming to an end, but the past two years have indeed been costly. When the crisis hit in
Including the loss incurred in the first quarter, CPH has now borrowed a total of
'The growing burden of debt poses a challenge to our ability to invest in the development of the sustainable airport of the future and to maintain our position as an important northern European air traffic hub,' explains
For the post-2023 period, CPH aims to amend the regulatory model underlying the charges agreement between Copenhagen Airport and the airlines, so it will also address the significant accumulated debt.
'It's still too early to say what effect an amended charges model will have on the actual price level, but we need to be able to repay our debt and still have the financial strength to invest for the future,' says
Outlook for 2022
Whilst the passenger volumes for 2022 have had a better start than last year, the global aviation industry continues to face uncertainty from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. CPH expects that the pandemic will continue to affect the number of flights and passengers, both in terms of leisure and business travelers, throughout 2022. Uncertainty for travelers and continued waves of infection may result in renewed disruption of travel patterns. Currently, we are unable to predict if and how the pandemic will affect aviation during the fall/winter 2022.
The war in
Regardless of the above-mentioned uncertainties, European air traffic is anticipated to improve in 2022 compared with 2021. The long-haul international routes, however, continue to be severely affected by restrictions and passenger hesitation although countries are slowly reopening. Despite the current uncertainties, an improvement in year-over-year results is expected for CPH, but we are not in a position to provide detailed guidance on CPH's financial performance for 2022.
CPH will monitor the situation closely and will continuously assess and adjust the level of operating costs and investments. CPH will update the financial market as and when a more precise financial outlook can be provided.
(C) 2022 Electronic News Publishing, source