DANISH AIRPORTS

As a flat country with lots of islands, Denmark ought to be well served by airports. Copenhagen is efficient, and polls well for service; but elsewhere, things go downhill rapidly. The main airport for Århus, the second city, is an old German military airfield stuck out on a peninsular to the east; while the main airport for Jutland as a whole, Billund, is in the middle of nowhere (other than being next door to Legoland). Neither airport has a rail link, and both are poorly served by public transport.

The problem is worst for Århus. Billund has benefitted from the arrival of Ryanair and its designation as a Ryanair hub (precisely because it is in the middle of nowhere); passenger numbers have risen from under 2 million 10 years ago to almost 3 million last year. Århus, by contrast, has been stuck on 500,000 for a decade, and the number is falling. The slack is being taken up by the airport at Aalborg in North Jutland. Aalborg is only the fourth largest city in Denmark, and much, much smaller than Århus, yet passenger numbers there have risen over the same period from 500,000 to almost 1.5 million.

For the municipal authorities that own Århus, something must be done. So they have now identified four potential sites to the south of the city. They are all close to the main north-south Jutland motorway, and so would be good locations. Unfortunately, they are also in residential areas (which will lead to fierce Nimby resistance) and would compete with Billund (which will defend itself vigorously, not least on the grounds that it already exists).

Jutland definitely needs two major airports, but probably not three. So it is unfortunate that the existing ones are not really in the right place. It's not a problem unique to Denmark (the U.K. springs to mind, for instance); but it's a problem nevertheless.

Walter Blotscher