Copenhagen Airport closes its runway for seven weeks in high season

Copenhagen Airport closes one of its two main runways for seven weeks amid stormy flight conflicts and a shortage of air traffic controllers.

This is written by the media Check-in.dk.

This happens when the track needs to be repaired. The work was started on 22 May and will run until 7 July, when the main line will be closed 24 hours a day.

It will contribute to further delays, says airport traffic manager Kristoffer Plenge-Brandt to Check-in.dk.

According to him, there are delays of 15 minutes at worst.

The closure of the runway will extend into the airport’s peak season. The summer, when the Danes really take to the skies to go on holiday.

But the work on the track must be carried out during a period when there is the greatest probability that it will be dry and warm and there will be many daylight hours, the traffic manager told the media.

For safety reasons, the work must be done now, he says.

– Since December last year, we have had a good and close dialogue with Naviair and a joint plan for how we can handle it as best as possible. It should be manageable when we have sufficient air traffic control, he says to Check-in.dk.

But air traffic controllers are in short supply at Copenhagen Airport. This has meant massive delays at the airport recently and a raging conflict between air traffic controllers at the airport.

The lack of air traffic controllers is due, among other things, to redundancies during the corona crisis. Here there was not the same need for air traffic controllers as there is now.

However, after the aviation business got going again, a shortage situation has arisen.

This has resulted in a conflict between the air traffic controllers’ union, Datca, and Naviair, which manages traffic in Danish airspace.

In April, 45 percent of all flights to and from Copenhagen Airport in Kastrup were delayed by more than fifteen minutes.

60,000 passengers had their flights canceled in the same month.

/ritzau/