Copenhagen Airport handled 3.2 million passengers in September, making it the busiest September in its history. The total was 4 per cent higher than in the same month of 2025, the airport said in a press statement. The figures show demand holding up after the summer peak, with both leisure travellers and transfer passengers adding to the numbers.
Peter Krogsgaard, the airport’s chief commercial officer, said the peak travel period now runs well past the school summer break. “The high season no longer ends when the summer holidays end,” he said, adding that September passenger numbers came close to those of the summer months. He linked the rise partly to the airport’s popularity as a transit hub, and said many Danes and southern Swedes are stretching their summer in southern destinations, taking European city breaks or crossing the Atlantic to the US.
Norway was the most popular destination country last month with 270,000 passengers, followed by Spain with 255,000 and the United Kingdom with 245,000. London topped the list of cities, ahead of Stockholm, Oslo, Amsterdam and Paris. As the largest airport in Scandinavia, Copenhagen serves much of Denmark as well as southern Sweden, which gives it a catchment that reaches well beyond the Danish capital.
Transatlantic travel was a clear driver. Interest in routes between Copenhagen and the US rose 8 per cent on a year earlier, and 140,000 passengers flew directly between the two in September. Krogsgaard said more American visitors are arriving, with some making Copenhagen their final stop and others continuing to other parts of Europe. Copenhagen is the only Danish airport with direct US connections, and SAS, Delta and American Airlines run 12 routes between the city and the US. New York is the most popular US destination, followed by San Francisco, Boston and Chicago.
The airport expects 1.1 million passengers to pass through in October, helped in part by Denmark’s autumn school holiday. About 220,000 people are forecast to fly from Copenhagen around week 42, from 12 to 18 October, with Spain, Italy and France the most popular southern European destinations. Sweden’s autumn holiday comes two weeks later, in week 44, from 26 to 30 October, which should keep traffic from southern Sweden steady through the end of the month. The airport’s figures point to a travel season that now runs well into the autumn rather than ending with the summer holidays.
