Copenhagen Airport (CPH) celebrates its 100th anniversary this year. And it is doing well. The freight division reported a 16% increase in cargo traffic in 2024. According to the Senior Air Cargo Managers, Michael Giese and Lars Gotfredsen, the Danish Airport plans to develop additional cargo facilities in the coming years.
Copenhagen Airport sees an increasing interest of forwarders and carriers seeking to use the airport as a Nordic gateway for import and export. This requires new facilities around the airport for storage, handling and parking, to be aligned with demands and national and EU regulations. That perspective was exclusively unveiled during the 10th Nordic Air Cargo Symposium, held at the Clarion Hotel Copenhagen Airport from 25-26MAR25.
Ground handling agents benefit…
New cargo facilities will support key operators alongside several smaller service providers. The main player is Spirit Air Cargo Handling. A household name in Copenhagen, as the company is part of the SAS Group. It manages the Scandinavian airline’s ground handling activities in Kastrup as it does for Thai Airways, LOT Cargo, Finnair Cargo, Air Serbia and some other small actors. “Only last week, we received request from five different companies,” states Spirit Managing Director, Peter Plambech, referring to the high demand for his company’s services.
The building of new cargo facilities is important for two key reasons, management emphasized. Firstly, tonnage is growing rapidly. In 2024, a total of 325,000 tons were handled in Kastrup: an increase of 16% compared to 2023. If SAS becomes majority-owned by Air France-KLM, as signaled by the Franco-Dutch carrier, the synergy effect is expected to give the cargo business at CPH an additional push.
And secondly, the central SAS warehouse managed by Spirit has seen better days. It was inaugurated in 2000, which is clearly visible in the interior, despite constant maintenance efforts. The participants of the Nordic Air Cargo Symposium, including the author, were able to see this for themselves during an exclusive tour.
…so does the pharma and life-science business
A state-of-the-art freight terminal is also essential to manage the rapidly growing pharma business. The non-profit organization, Medicon Valley Alliance, confirms this need. It is a leading European player with 330 member companies from the life sciences sector. Of these, 40% are based in Denmark (building a cluster in the Copenhagen area), 40% come from Sweden and 20% from other neighboring countries. According to Medicon’s CEO, Anette Stenberg, around 80,000 people are employed by one of the member companies. For CPH, this means that the airport aims to focus even more on these high-quality and high-priced products.
This also applies to fresh fish, which mainly comes from Norway and is flown from Oslo but also travels from Copenhagen to the global target markets. In addition, CPH has put a new focus on the thriving e-commerce business, which the airport has decided to support.
Customs was part of the cargo project from day one
Customs is heavily involved in these plans, as Charles Bo Volkersen Conrad, Deputy Director Trade and Commerce, Danish Customs, confirmed to CargoForwarder Global: “We don’t want to put any unnecessary barriers on e-commerce. On the other hand, we have responsibilities to ensure that only legal goods cross the Danish borders. That’s why we are in close dialogue with airport management on what is needed tomorrow and thereafter, to enable customs to keep up with developments, standing as a guard to guarantee security to society.” The official went on to say: “We need not only strong Danish national customs but the EU bodies responsible for customs must also pull together in this regard.”
The following comparison, unveiled at the Symposium, illustrates just how complex the day-to-day business is: 20 tons of general cargo, stowed in the lower deck of a passenger flight, translates into roughly 40 different air waybills. In the case where the carrier’s belly compartments are filled with e-commerce goods, 40,000 to 50,000 different AWBs are mandated by law, due to the multitude of goods. Despite all digital data transmission, it is a Herculean task for the responsible customs authorities to check this avalanche of shipments in a reasonable amount of time. This can only be done by means of selected spot checks. Companies that provide false information about the content of their shipments and are caught, will have to expect much higher fines in future.
Community system on the horizon
Finally, Gotfredsen and Giese announce that CPH is planning to facilitate a community platform in order to connect the various cargo players, especially forwarders, more closely with each other and to act collectively. Truck slots that allow shipments to be delivered and picked up without truckers being thwarted by waiting times, are part of the masterplan. The aim is also to determine which goods pass through the airport every day and in what quantities. “This data helps us a lot in the dialogue with our customers,” reasons Mr. Gotfredsen.
