Copenhagen Airport resurfaces runway overnight to avoid flight delays

Copenhagen Airport is carrying out its first overnight runway renovation to avoid disrupting daytime air traffic, DR reports. Between 60 and 70 people are working on one of the airport’s two main runways, which must be ready before the first morning flights.

The project involves replacing the top layer of asphalt on 1,000 metres of the 3,600-metre runway. The runway is 70 metres wide, making the total resurfaced area 70,000 square metres. The new surface is two centimetres thick.

The work is being carried out in strips, night by night, while the runway remains in operation. It is scheduled to run from 24 August to 4 September, with no work planned at weekends. The asphalt is applied at 130 degrees Celsius and must cool before the runway can reopen.

Workers have between 11pm and 6am to remove the old asphalt, lay the new surface, repaint the runway and complete safety tests and inspections. Airport operations manager Joachim Munch Street said the process requires the coordinated movement of contractors, vehicles and equipment.

Airport operations director Kristoffer Plenge-Brandt said the overnight schedule was chosen because traffic is naturally much lighter at night. Continuing the work during the day would have left the airport with only one main runway and could have caused delays to flights to and from Copenhagen.

The runway is also used by the Airbus A380, the world’s largest passenger aircraft, which can weigh more than 500 tonnes at take-off.

The airport expects more than 800 aircraft movements on the days ahead. The runway opened as planned on Thursday, and Plenge-Brandt said no delays caused by the renovation are expected in the coming days.