Billund Airport (Danish: Billund Lufthavn) (IATA: BLL, ICAO: EKBI) is an airport in Denmark. Located 1 nautical mile (1.9 km; 1.2 mi) northeast[2] of Billund, it serves as one of the country's busiest air cargo centres, as well as a charter airline destination. Most major European airports are connected to Billund via multiple daily scheduled flights.
Billund Airport had its beginning in 1961 when the son of the founder of the Lego Group, Godtfred Kirk Christiansen, established a private 800-meter long runway and hangar north of his factory in Billund. With Christiansen as a key driver, more of the neighbouring municipalities were included in the group of owners, and it was planned that the airport should be expanded to a regular public airport.[3]
The construction of the new airport was carried out during 1964 and the airport opened on 1 November, with one runway at 1660 meters in length and 45 meters width, a small platform where aircraft could be served, and a control tower.[4] Hans Erik Christensen, the former chief pilot at Lego, became director, and the passengers were handled in Lego's hangar until the first terminal building was opened in the spring of 1966.[3] The airport was continuously expanded in the following years, with new facilities, terminal buildings, lounge, tax-free area, and hangars where LC Johansen's studio often participated as an architect (today called Johannsen Architects), while other work was carried out by the airport's own studio.[3]
In 1997, they had an architectural competition for a new 430,000 ft² (40,000 m2) passenger terminal, designed to serve 3.5 million passengers a year, north of the original airport. KHR Architects won the assignment and completed the construction in co-operation with COWI, and at the end of May 2002 the new passenger terminal was put to use, as the first phase of the future expansion, which is scheduled to take place north of the start and runway, while air cargo services, business and private aviation will continue to be served from the existing buildings south of the runway.[5] In connection with this expansion, the largest since the beginning of the airport, it was with effect from 1 January 1997 turned into a joint-stock company, Billund Airport A/S, with the former members Vejle County and municipalities Vejle, Kolding, Grindsted, Billund, and Give as shareholders.[3]
Development since the 2000s
In 2008, the entire runway was renovated and paved, and a new taxiway was built, nicknamed "Mike". This major task only took 14 hours.[citation needed] The runway was closed overnight between the hours 23:00 and 06:00. This did not prevent a Boeing 737-800 from Ryanair landing at one end of the runway, while they worked at the other end.[citation needed] The same year was also a record year for the airport. 2,546,856 passengers passed through the terminals, an increase of 12.7 percent compared with 2007.[citation needed]
From mid-2009, the airport was served by nine airlines flying regular flight service, of which KLM had the busiest route with over 200,000 annual passengers to Amsterdam Schiphol. In 2011, Ryanair announced that Billund Airport with effect from 25 March 2012 would be the base for two Boeing 737 aircraft. At the same time, Ryanair published five new routes, so that, from the summer of 2012, they would fly to 19 destinations.[citation needed]
In 2014, Lego produced a limited Lego Architecture set of Billund Airport, which could only be bought in the departure hall's Lego store. In 2018, a new version of this set was released, again in limited quantities.[6]
A new terminal was slated to open in the fall of 2019.[7] It cost more than 100 million Danish kroner.
In late 2023, a theatre performance was installed at the airport.[8]
Corporate affairs
In 2007, Vejle County was abolished after a municipality reform. It's 50% shareholding was then distributed among municipalities in the county leading to the following ownership:[9]
The airport handles an average of more than three million passengers a year, and millions of pounds of cargo. The airport's main runway can handle airliners as large as the Boeing 747, although most passengers arrive on smaller aeroplanes, such as ATR-72s, Boeing 737s and Airbus A320s. Boeing 747 activity at this airport is almost exclusively limited to cargo flights.[citation needed]
Airlines and destinations
Passenger
The following airlines operate regular scheduled and charter flights to and from Billund:[11]
^ ab"EKBI – Billund"(PDF). AIP Denmark. Copenhagen: Trafikstyrelsen/Danish Transport Authority. 28 June 2012. part AD 2 – EKBI. Archived from the original(PDF) on 24 May 2012. Retrieved 9 September 2012.
