Copenhagen Airport

Not Verified | I am a local in Copenhagen and can say that the airport is great. So in this review I will adress eight common issues that some travellers have had. Please note that I am not sponsored nor am I in any way affiliated with Copenhagen Airport. This is my own opinion as I travel through this airport every year. 1) Why are there Passport checks post (after) security? Passport checks in the only terminal for departure flights is at the entrance/exit to the C and F gates is due to Denmark participating in the Schengen Area, whose regulation means that there is no passport check for flights within the Schegnen area and the EEA (European Economic Area). However departures to the UK and other outside Schengen or EEA destinations is mandatory according to Danish law. 2) Is the airport difficult to navigate? In short no. Remember this when leaving the duty freee / tax free store after TSA / Security check go to the right to find gates A & B or go to the left to find gates C, D, E (E is under construction) & F and always remember, read the signs or universal symbols to navigate it is easier then you think. 3) Baggage claim problems. Baggage claim problems may occur however there are 3 luggage cariers in Copenhagen SGH (SAS and other airlines), Menzies and Aviator they each have responsibilities to their customers and their helps desks are all located in Baggage claim. I am sorry if you had trouble with your bags but remember if you stay calm then baggage carriers tend to be more helpful. 4) Why are there no passport checks for family groups? I am not sure about this but tell the officers at the passport booth about possible dissabilities that may make it necesary for you and your family to check passports as a group as Danes is usally friendly and the officer is helpfull. 5) Restroom facilities / Toilets in Copenhagen is in abundance and some times some the toilets were out of order but in general Copenhagen airport strive to hold restroom facilities clean and in a working condition. 6) Why is everything expensive? Truth be told every airport has more expensive prices than the general costs in the country itself. But do bear in mind that the best places to purchase water or snacks in my opinion is Flyingtiger of Copenhagen (near the A gates) or the Tax free post security / TSA (after security). 7) Why the automated kiosk? You can always check in via the old fashioned way with an airline employe but save yourselves some time and just check in at the kiosk as it makes the queue and waiting time to check in your bags much shorter for not only you but also others unless you have some question (read the next bullet point). 8) How can I get help in Copenhagen Airport? Pre security / TSA (that is before) ask anyone who is wearing a yellow-greenish shirt with an question mark they are there to help you or find your airline's bagge carrier (see point 3). In Terminal 2 Menzies and Aviator is far down by the high numbered bag drops or in Terminal 3 SGH. Note Terminal 2 & 3 is connected in one building and is in walking distance. The last option is to find the Information desk next to arrivals hall in Terminal 3 or to go in line at your bag drop to ask an Airline representative. I hope this has helped you get a better sense of Copenhagen Airport as it truly is a great airport. However there is space for improvement.

Not Verified | Worst airport experience ever. Arriving with my teenagers and aging parents. Only allowed to approach passport control individually (no family groups) and demanded that I move on despite the kids being minors, my father all but deaf and my mother with dementia. Nearly caused a diplomatic incident. Departing we arrived 2.5 hours before departure and ran to the gate to be last on the plane. Why on earth is passport control in the middle of the terminal. Is it not normally before security? The passport control line was back to the duty free. Well over an hour wait and we got rushed through in the end. No one could move around the airport, or get into the shops. No time to shop, spent the whole time in the queue. Of course it was super hot in there too. Didn't get a chance to look for the reported non-existent seating. Totally exhausted ready for our 25 hour flight home. Such a bad advertisement for Denmark.

Not Verified | I'm a frequent traveller and this was the worst experience I've ever had with an airport. What should have been the simple task of getting a bag ticket involved three long lines and astonishingly rude staff who yelled at me after I followed their own very wrong instructions. After clearing the bag drop, I came to a shopping mall maze to find my gate. Imagine an airport terminal that's also an Ikea store but everything is much more expensive. For some reason the gates are not revealed even hours before departure so it's not clear where you should go if you want to sit and wait for your flight. Speaking of which, there are no public places to sit while waiting for gate numbers to be revealed. People are forced to hang out in the shops or stand around haphazardly underneath the departure sign as others passing by attempt to maneuver around them. Who designed this nonsense and hired these terrible people? This place will challenge your ideas about northern Europe being the golden standard of efficiency and design. Copenhagen was magnificent but if I were to visit again, I'd sooner take a bus from Malmö than deal with this nightmare airport.

✅ Trip Verified | My husband and I recently had the misfortune to use this airport when we were due to catch a plane for a return trip to London Heathrow. Unfortunately the plane was 5 hours late with the result that we spent ten hours in this airport. We are frequent travellers and have been to many airports, some in very poor countries, and we can honestly say that this is the worst experience we have ever had. If all you want to do is shop and eat expensively priced food, it may well be right up your street. If, however, you think you might like to sit down during these ten hours, then good luck to you. There is virtually no public seating whatsoever, and no information forthcoming from anyone. The staff are extremely rude and make no effort whatsoever to help, either with suggestions of where we could wait, or what was actually happening with our flight. When they did eventually say that the boarding gate was open, it really wasn't so everyone who had been sitting around on the floor of the shopping area of the airport, then ended up sitting on the floor outside the gate for another half hour or so until someone came to open the doors. I can honestly say that this experience has put us off ever returning to Denmark if we have to use this airport.

✅ Trip Verified | Our flight to Frankfurt was due to leave at 6.50 am, our hotel was attached to the airport and we had checked in for the flight on Saturday so all we had to do was get baggage tags which for some reason would not print on Saturday, drop them off at the fast drop and go through security. We arrived to do this at 5.10 am well more than the 90 minutes suggested for a complete check in. The airport was in chaos, because we needed bag tags we had to get into a huge queue for people needing assistance. After 40 minutes in this queue, my husband stayed in the queue and while I returned to the self check in kiosk where I finally managed to print out tags. This was a mistake as it turned out as we were then required to leave the queue for people needing assistance to go the now equally long queue for the fast bag drop! All the time listening to the overhead announcements apologizing for the fact their baggage system was currently "unstable" (hence the trouble the day before getting the tags). After 20 minutes in this new queue we finally got to where we could fast drop our bags but they were rejected as it was now too late to check bags. As a result we were sent to yet another new queue and another wait to get an override and get them accepted. When we got to the front of that queue, they still couldn't take them as our flight was now closed too! A German passenger on the same flight managed to get them to agree to hold the gate for all of us and we were to leave our bags on the floor of the airport (so much for the don't leave your bags unattended warning that ran concurrently with the baggage system is unstable apology). and "someone would deal with them" and get our way through security where there was yet another 20 minute wait. In security we were told to go to desk 10 and when we got to the place where you actually put your bags on the conveyor for screening, they shut down and sent us to join the queue at 9. All this time we were telling them we had connecting flights to catch at Frankfurt, but no one frankly cared nor given this was apparently a known problem from all the announcements there was no effort to triage the queues according to time of flight and the need to make international connections. We got through screening but both of us were told off for carrying our passports with us - they said "next time don't do that" to which my husband truthfully replied "I assure you there is not going to be a next time". Then we had to run literally run to our gate which of course was the furthest from security. We showed up breathless and panting, and the gate was closed and locked. The attendant at the gate rudely told us to go through the electronic stile as she only handles 1st class passengers and then security unlocked the doors and let us on the plane. We left wondering if we would ever see our bags again. Our anxiety levels increased when during the flight we received a baggage receipt email telling us what to do if our bags didn't show up and what the airlines liability was. Now to be fair our bags did in fact arrive when we did However It rather spoiled what was a lovely holiday in Denmark

Not Verified | Great airport if you want to shop and eat out! If you just want to travel it's not nice at all. When we wanted to check in our hold luggage, we were asked to print the tags for it at the machines available at the entries. We went there to check in our luggage and it turned out about half of them were not working. Quite a few more broke down as we tried to print out our tags, maybe due to the heat. I appreciate that things can break down but there was no one there to help people as they ended up confused in front of the machines that had broken down mid-process either. When waiting for your flight be prepared to look for a clean spot on the floor, there are hardly any seats if you don't want to sit in and order some food. Not a nice travel experience at all - and very disappointing after a lovely stay in Denmark!

✅ Trip Verified | This airport is terrible. When I landed, I walked for 20 minutes to the baggage claim area. Then I couldn't figure out which belt my luggage was coming from. Instead of having 1 screen telling passengers where their luggage is coming out from. They had several screens in front of connected belts (belts 7 and 8 are connected etc) saying which company is responsible for handling your luggage. I found out this when I asked an airport transit what 'SAS' means next to my flight instead of a usual belt number. Apparently, SAS is the name of company handling my luggage. Passengers has to walk from belt 8 to 1 to find the name of their flights on the TV next to the belt to know where their luggage is at. My flight from Paris is at belt 7-8. It took 40 minutes for any luggage to start flowing out. After another close to 1 hour, I still couldn't find my luggage. There was rumours going around all the passengers from my flight that our luggage was left in Paris. I went to SAS counter and waited for 10 minutes before I could speak to the lady in charge. She said that SAS wasn't handling any Easyjet luggage(why?!). Then, I walked over to the other end of the belt to find the EasyJet luggage counter. A man in charge told me the luggages are here. He was impatient. He then discovered I was waiting at belt 7 and 8 instead of at 1 and 2. So after 2 hours of waiting standing up I finally found my luggage. Belt 1 and 2 has a dozen or so luggages left on its belts, from all the clueless passengers. There was no sign to show these luggages belong to our flight and the TV was blank.

Not Verified | Horrible, horrible airport! You arrive at the main area with passport control and there's no signs for information, good luck trying to find one of the 6 lounges as none of them are sign posted. When I finally found information he told me there was 1 terminal but that's not what the next one told me. There was no info on my flight / airline on the boards it's just one of the worst airports I've seen. It's also a massive 20 minute walk and the morons have put 3 lounges right next to each other in one area and 2 in another. Either the designed / architect was drunk or they puroposefully designed this airport to annoy people. I can't imagine if I were rushing to catch a flight, you would have zero chance. They should go visit Stockholm and take some lessons from them! And the staff are useless, unfriendly and do not want to help.

✅ Trip Verified | Unbelievably terrible experience departing from CPH - sharp contrast to the overall great experience in Copenhagen. Staff were not only unhelpful but also extremely rude. Checking in, we were sent to three different stands one after another because we are not EU citizens and somehow - in 2019 - they were not sure what to do with us. Coming up to the passport checks just before the gate, the queue (for non EU passports) was so long it took us over half an hour to get through. Overall, arriving at the airport 2 hours before departure (travelling to another European destination) was just about enough to get to the plane towards the end of boarding. To top it off, just before boarding they put in another passport check person, 3rd passport check. The checker was again, unbelievably rude. Can't believe this experience.

Not Verified | We arrived at CPH om May 24 and left it on May 26. At both occasions we found the sanitary conditions to be unsatisfactory: baskets for paper towels were completely full, toilets we tried were either not functioning (2 at the D gate) or dirty. The same at our departure happened to us, more as a surprise because at previous visits we did not observe these shortcomings.