Copenhagen Airport, Denmark

Copenhagen Airport is the largest airport in Scandinavia serving Copenhagen and the surrounding regions, being only 8km from the city centre in the town of Kastrup on the Island of Amager (the airport is also only 24km from Malmo).

The airport serves both domestic and international traffic and is one of the three main hubs for the national airline Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS – part of the Star Alliance). The airport, which has an area of 11.8km², operates with three runways – 04L/22R 3,600m, 11,811ft; 04R/22L (CAT3) 3,300m, 10,827ft (parallel runways); and 12/30 2,800m, 9,186ft (cross runway).

The facilities are comprehensive including three terminal buildings, a railway station, a car park, a police station, Gate Gourmet catering facility and four large maintenance hangars as well as cargo terminals for DHL and SAS in the eastern area. The airport terminals have 108 contact gates with nine domestic, 43 international with passenger aerobridges, 54 remote stands and two helicopter landing areas.

The airport is owned and operated by Copenhagen Airports A/S (owned by Macquarie Airports Copenhagen ApS (53.4%), Danish State (39.2%) and the rest by private investors). The airport played host to 21.4 million passengers in 2007 and saw 257,591 aircraft movements. Copenhagen is the 17th-busiest airport in Europe and can handle around 83 aircraft movements an hour at full capacity.

COPENHAGEN AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL TOWER

The airport recently opened a new air traffic control tower and in February 2008 announced it had installed NAV CANADA technology for the new 70m tower to monitor and guide aircraft in the airport and surrounding airspace.

The Extended Computer Display System (EXCDS), the advanced 'paperless' flight-data system was installed through collaboration between Naviair (Danish navigation service) and NAV CANADA. The Danish version of this air traffic management system is called NITOS (Naviair Integrated Tower Operating System) and this is now a fully operational part of the ATC systems at Copenhagen tower.

Morten Dambæk, director general of Naviair, commented: "This system improves efficiency and enhances the quantity and flow of flight data. There's also the added potential to grow capacity in the future."

WIRELESS TECHNOLOGY TRIAL

A new wireless technology system has been in testing at Copenhagen Airport since 2006 that is designed around RFID (radio frequency identification) and Bluetooth (near field communications) on mobile phones.

The system will be able to provide information to passengers through their phones such as gate numbers, flight delays, weather report at destination, final calls and will also allow the airport to track passengers around the airport (the phone identifies itself to the system as it moves through different zones).

The system was developed in collaboration with the IT University of Copenhagen and the Technical University of Denmark (Riso National Laboratory). Other partners include Blip Systems, Lyngsoe Systems and Copenhagen Airport itself.

The technology was tested on an actual flight in February 2008 using a team of volunteers with mobile handsets equipped with Bluetooth and RFID (if the passenger does not have a mobile an RFID tag alone can be used).

Dr John Paulin Hansen, associate professor at the IT University, commented: "The reason we are using RFID technology for our test in February is that it provides 100% coverage. And in combination with Bluetooth, we have a unique opportunity to provide information to passengers also through their mobiles.

"We can't just base everything on Bluetooth alone, because there are still passengers who don't take a mobile with them when they travel. We also risk the phones running out of power or being turned off, which is why we offer this combination."

Niels Hemmingsen, vice president for cabin operations at SAS, said: "For the airlines, it will be a big help in optimising the boarding process. We don't take off until we have a complete match between passengers and their baggage, so if one or more passengers don't show up by departure time, we have to pull their baggage out of the plane before we can close the gate. With this new technology, we can find out where individual passengers are so we can contact them or have more time to take the baggage off the plane."

The research project to develop this technology is called SPOPOS, the Danish acronym for 'tracking technology personal and operator services'.

PIER B

The airport completed a refurbishment project in all of its pier B gate lounges in January 2008. All of the furniture and carpeting (1,839m² of new carpeting) was replaced and a new contemporary colour scheme was chosen to reflect Scandinavian design and architecture.

The carpet was purchased under the 'Cool Carpet' programme; this means that an extra purchase amount is levied to offset the greenhouse gas emissions resulting from the product's life cycle, manufacture to disposal. There were a total of 807 lounge seats replaced during the project and also a number of tables.

The designers for the new Orca brand furniture were Anne-Mette Bartholin Jensen and Morten Ernst, which was manufactured by Erik Jørgensen Møbelfabrik A/S. The furniture fabric was chosen to be wear resistant and easy clean.

PIER C REFURBISHMENT

In September 2007 the refurbishment and expansion of pier C started at the airport (first built in 2001). The DKr190m project is set to include a new arrivals level, larger lounges for transit passengers and a redesign so that aircraft stands can be made more efficient.

The pier C (capacity of around seven million passengers a year) redesign will also separate flows of passengers to increase security. The first phase of the project is involving the enlargement of the space of three lounges by 1,000m² and the refurbishment of two other lounges.

In early 2008 phase two started, which involves the addition of another floor to the building. The new storey is being built at second-floor level; it will be 150m long and have around 920m² of floor space. The new arrivals floor has been designed to be open, airy and welcoming, with windows and large glass walls having views out over the runways of the airport. The entrance to Pier C will have new passport control booths and also there will be five new elevators and six new escalators.

The architect for the project is TNT Architects, the general contractor is Gronbech Construction and the engineers are Ramboll A/A. The work is expected to be complete by September 2008.

AUTOMATED BAGGAGE SYSTEM

In May 2007 Copenhagen became the first airport to introduce a baggage handling system that can take bags from the check-in to the aircraft hold without any manual handling. The system has been developed at Copenhagen by SAS Ground Services (SGS), Copenhagen Airports (CPH), FKI Logistex and CPH Design A/S (a functioning prototype was patented in 2007 by CPH and SGS).

The system was installed properly in late 2007 and was in operation by January 2008. There are 12 baggage lines connected to a scanning function, which forms part of the airports central infrastructure.

The system uses carts into which the bags are packed automatically according to their barcode. The carts then transport to the aircraft and empty themselves into the hold.

The system actually knows the location of every bag in the aircraft hold so that if a passenger doesn't turn up at the gate their bags can be quickly found and removed.