Aarhus unveils new departure lounge and catering concepts
New upper level is first of many significant terminal upgrades unveiled to passengers
Amid extensive development of airport-wide facilities and amenities, a reception including Mayor of Aarhus – Jacob Bundsgaard, unveiled the first of many significant upgrades to the gateway serving Scandinavia’s fifth largest metropolitan area. The airport’s upper level development for departing customers sees a significant increase in the departure lounge area and after-security amenities available to pre-flight travelers.
The airport celebrated a new partnership with ‘local hero’ chef Martin Ib, an Aarhus-based chef, caterer and culinary entrepreneur at the helm of numerous restaurants, event catering, training and other catering facilities across the city and region. ‘MIB’ is a well established catering brand that has carved a reputation for high quality food and dining experiences, using local ingredients and delicacies across its menus and locations, inspiring customers with tempting and innovative dishes, from artisan fresh baked breads to fine dining, gourmet cuisine and everyday bites with a quintessentially Danish and Nordic flair. Martin Ib’s launch at Aarhus Airport is the company’s first aviation-based catering operation and MIB will offer a full range of eating solutions to Aarhus’ airline customers, from take-away coffees and cakes, to sandwiches, “food on the go”, fresh baked pizzas, a daily range of Danish-inspired dishes, pastries and tastebud-delighting bar services. The new concept at ‘AAR’ includes two café locations; one land-side in the airport’s newly refitted check-in and foyer area, a departure lounge café in the after-security seating area and an all-new, hotel-like lounge and dining level elevated above the departures and retail zone – a lounge concept created by Danish design house HAY and available to all departing travellers.
“Customers will notice the change imeediately”, commented head of airline relations David Surley, “the transformation is quite dramatic and already passengers are telling us it feels like a business class lounge open to everyone, whether you’re flying Ryanair, SAS or away on vacation to one of our many tour operator destinations. The furnishings are great, it feels really cool, very Scandinavian, wonderfully relaxing and the upgrade in our food and beverage proposition is nothing short of incredible. It really is fantastic and first class”.
The new multi-level departure area has been specifically enlarged to handle an increasing flow of passengers through the Aarhus gateway. In 2018 the airport encountered +80% growth in international passengers among a total increase of +31% customers. In the first half of 2019 the volume of passengers expanded by a further +20% year-on-year and the airport also welcomed a rise in domestic travellers.
“We are expecting more and more customers to more and more destinations”, confirmed Surley, “the airport is growing rapidly as a direct result of high economic performance in the Aarhus economy and a rise not only in outbound business and leisure travel, but also a very sharp increase in inbound international travelers, those coming to Aarhus whether for meetings or city-breaks who now find themselves arriving in Scandinavia’s fastest growing destination, around 65% up in visitor numbers for well over five years. More hotels, new congress and convention facilities, fast-growing headquartered companies and a very buoyant Danish economy are generating increased underlying demand. Our airline partners like SAS have been responding to that with enhanced frequency and new route development”.
The airport anticipates a further significant rise in traffic in coming periods and has accompanied new private equity investment in early 2019 with ongoing development of terminal facilities, upgrades and amenities, alongside a high-paced focus on route network and capacity increase, aimed at improving service and connectivity for the Greater Aarhus area’s metropolitan population base and a continually expanding inbound traveler demand aligned with econmic activity. In 2019’s World Bank report on ease of doing business, internationally Denmark ranked 3rd in the world - the only European economy in the top five – alongside New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong and Korea, but also the most improved in the top ten.
Greater Aarhus metropolitan area is home to over 1.38 million people, Denmark’s largest commercial port, Scandinavia’s largest university student population, hospital and multiple global headquarters of sector-leading companies including Vestas Wind Systems, Arla Foods, Grundfos and Aarhus University. The fifth largest metropolitan area in the Nordic region, Aarhus is also its fastest growing tourism economy by total overnight stays and ranks 72nd in the world among international conference locations (ICCA 2018)