Denmark’s Billund Airport could lose 850,000 passengers due to Ryanair exit

Billund Airport is set to see a significant impact to its bottom line resulting from budget airline Ryanair’s decision earlier this year to cut services from the airport in central Jutland.

CEO Jan Hessellund said in comments to financial media Børsen that around 850,000 passengers are expected to be lost this year alone due to the exit from Ryanair.

“My expectation is that with the attractive market we can demonstrate we have, other airlines want to come here,” Hessellund said.

“We are in talks with several airlines but we cannot recreate all the traffic in the short term,” he said.

Ryanair’s absence will also be felt in 2026, when the director said 600,000 fewer passengers can be expected. Some 3.9 million passengers travelled through Billund in 2024.

Ryanair announced in February that it would close a two-aircraft base at Billund and cancel all of its 24 services from the airport effective from the end of March, blaming Denmark’s new air travel tax for the decision. 

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The air travel tax is being phased in gradually over the next five years and means an initial additional cost of up to 50 kroner on ticket prices for all departures from Denmark.

READ ALSO: How much will Denmark’s new air travel taxes cost passengers?

Passenger figures for April, released at the beginning of this month, served as an indication of the likely extent of the impact of the decision by Ryanair. 

Some 217,713 travellers passed through Billund Airport last month, nearly 100,000 fewer than in the same month last year. This means April ended with a 31.4 percent drop in passenger numbers.

Billund Airport has looked to make up the shortfall by introducing new services with other airlines. 

These have included British Airways increasing the number of departures to London, while low-cost airline Wizz Air has expanded with routes to Gdańsk in Poland, Vilnius in Lithuania, and Iași in Romania.

LISTED: The new flights from Denmark this spring and summer

Air Greenland meanwhile launched two weekly departures to Greenland’s capital, Nuuk, and SAS resumed flights between Billund and Copenhagen with four daily departures.

Norwegian has announced new routes to popular holiday destinations Malaga and Alicante, while a new service from Billund to Barcelona is to be offered by airline Vueling.

Ryanair is Europe’s largest airline in terms of passenger numbers and the third largest at Denmark’s largest airport, Copenhagen, behind SAS and Norwegian.