Meet the team: Copenhagen Airport

David Casey September 12, 2019

Morten Mortensen, director of airline sales & route development

Who are you and what do you do? My name is Morten Mortensen and I am responsible for airline sales in CPH Airport, leading the professional team of our route development managers.

What are the best and worst parts of the job? The best part of my job is together with our KAM’s to work with airline customers developing business opportunities; more frequencies and new routes.

What are the biggest challenges and opportunities at the moment? The biggest challenges are developing CPH for the future, expanding our capacity for future growth while still operating very effectively. Another challenge is the ongoing environmental agenda, how do we as an industry create a more sustainable aviation industry. There a number of good opportunities, the industry is growing with new potential destinations to be connected to CPH and the underlying demand and desire to travel is still strong.

What do you get up to outside of work? Outside of work my main focus is to spend time with my two kids, enjoying as much time with them before they fly out of the nest. I like to be physically active, to stay fit and to work out the stress. When time allows, I really enjoy playing a round of golf.

What’s your bucket list destination? On top of my list is Seoul that has a strong potential from Northern Europe. Another wish list destination is South Africa that we have worked on for a number of years.

Simon Nathan, senior manager, commercial strategy and route development

Who are you and what do you do? I’m Simon, and I look after the route development strategy and sales process here at CPH. As well as that background work, I also have the responsibility for looking after Norwegian Air Shuttle, and the Americas and Russian markets. Quite a mixed bag of things to do.

What are the best and worst parts of the job? The best parts of the job are without doubt getting to work with great people at our airline partners, and learn how we can work together to create positive results for all concerned. Meeting with colleagues from other airports and industry providers is also a great source of energy. The chance to travel to exciting destinations all around the world can’t be disregarded either! The worst part of the job is when I’m unable to spend as much time as I’d like with the customers and developing new business, but that paperwork needs doing……

What are the biggest challenges and opportunities at the moment? I think the biggest challenges right are what seems to be a global slowdown from the highs of the last few years, and a growing awareness of the ‘flight shaming’ movement. This is something we can’t ignore, and we must, as an industry, be aware, be humble, and do our bit to minimise concerns and more importantly, impact on the environment, as we continue to drive global connectivity.

What do you get up to outside of work? What do you mean, outside work?

What’s your bucket list destination? I’ve been extremely lucky and have visited places I never thought I’d ever get to see already, so it would be greedy to mention anywhere specific, I think. That being said, always open to going somewhere new… Argentina, Greenland, Chile, Peru, take the Trans Siberian railway. I could always find something to go and see!

Kasper Wiinberg, route development manager

Who are you and what do you do? Kasper Wiinberg, route development manager covering Europe, the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent.

What are the best and worst parts of the job? The best part is definitely meeting so many different persons, cultures and countries. The worst is being away from the family.

What are the biggest challenges and opportunities at the moment? The grounding of the 737MAX causing a lot of challenges in airlines growing their business.

What do you get up to outside of work? Spending time in our summer house and playing golf.

What’s your bucket list destination? Mumbai in India and London City Airport.

Oliver V. W. Petersen, senior route development manager, Europe & Africa

Who are you and what do you do? My name is Oliver, and I have worked for CPH for more than nine years. I am senior route development manager and look after Europe, Israel and Africa.

What are the best and worst parts of the job? The best part is that I get to promote the city and country I love across the world. The worst is the competition in the business - but it does make you stay sharp.

What are the biggest challenges and opportunities at the moment? To ensure continued growth for CPH in a very competitive environment - fortunately Denmark and southern Sweden is an attractive catchment area and good inbound destination.

What do you get up to outside of work? Spend as much time as possible with my children, wife, family and friends, play in the house and garden, travel together, go out, play tennis, squash, ski and read especially on Danish and European history, when time permits.

What’s your bucket list destination? For new routes? I can’t tell you. But for travelling I would like to revisit Bordeaux, this time with my wife and our two wonderful children, a beautiful city I visited with my parents and brother many years ago. Spent this summer in the Nantes and Western Loire region further north, and that was great.

Annika Liljenberg, senior route development manager, Asia

Who are you and what do you do? My name is Annika Liljenberg and I hold the position as senior route development manager with responsibility for Asia. I have worked at the airport with route development for more than ten years, having had the responsibility also for low-cost airlines and regional responsibility for Americas. Prior to joining Copenhagen Airports, I worked for the Danish low-cost airline Sterling Airlines and for the tour operators TUI Nordic and Kuoni. My educational background includes a Master of Science degree in International Marketing & Management from Copenhagen Business School as well as a Graduate Diploma in International Business. I live in the outskirts of Copenhagen with my Greek husband and our 11- year old daughter, who loves spotting aircraft when they fly over our house.

What are the best and worst parts of the job? The best part of this job is the international aspect and that we get to meet with so many interesting and nice people from all over the world. I enjoy being able to represent the region of Greater Copenhagen and help improve connectivity to the Copenhagen Airport. Furthermore, I really enjoy when I feel that my work is considered valuable to the airlines and I like the long-term relationships that we are building with many airlines. I don’t think that there are any bad parts of the job – although I am actually not too fond of flying (especially landings) which is inconvenient in this job.

What are the biggest challenges and opportunities at the moment? The largest opportunity in my area of responsibility for the time being is a direct connection to Seoul – this is on the top of my wish list. We believe there is a great case for an airline to operate this route. One of the largest challenges for the time being is that we are lacking more traffic rights from China to Scandinavia which means that any expansion from China currently is challenging. This is something that I am spending quite some time on as we believe there is still potential for more capacity to Denmark from China.

What do you get up to outside of work? Outside work I travel as much as I can – my husband being Greek means that he is not too fond of the Danish winters so we tend to travel to a sunny and warm place in Asia every year in February. And we are also quite fond of taking shorter weekend trips to smaller European cities during the year. Besides travelling, I spend quite some time restoring our old house, which is a never ending story, I try to stay fit and exercise as much as possible and support my daughter’s participation in various Karate competitions. Furthermore, I love baking and experiment a lot with new bread, cake and dessert recipes – especially gluten free recipes as I have celiac disease.

What’s your bucket list destination? Seoul.

Morten Poulsen, senior manager, business development

Who are you and what do you do? My name is Morten Poulsen and I work as senior manager business development, with the responsibility for SAS and domestic carriers. I have worked at the airport since 2000 in various airline and ground handling positions. I first joined Copenhagen Airports in 2008, where I worked here for 1.5 years. In 2014 I joined Copenhagen Airports again, working as senior project manager in our operational department, before joining airline sales in 2016. I live In Dragør, a small town near the airport, which I known for its cozy harbour and picturesque maze of alleys with yellow-painted houses, red roofs, and cobblestone streets. I’m married to Christel, whom I meet in early 2000 when we both worked as tour guide in Gran Canaria, and together we have two children, Alba who is 12 years old and Bastia, aged nine.

What are the best and worst parts of the job? Best part is the international aspect, where we get to meet with many people from all over the world. I feel proud that I get to represent Copenhagen and Denmark, and are able to influence and improve the connectivity to and from Copenhagen/Denmark. I enjoy the relationship we have with our airline customers, and when they feel that my contribution is valuable to their business. Worst part is that I am very bad at handling jetlag, which is not the best cocktail when we spend quite some time on the road.

What are the biggest challenges and opportunities at the moment? The largest opportunity in CPH at the moment is the intercontinental routes, which have seen a massive growth over the past years. We have some great cases for different new destinations that could be really interesting for specific airlines to operate. The biggest challenge is the increasing environmental debate that is going on. SAS is a very good example of an airline that has already embraced this challenge, and are continuously coming up with new climate friendly initiatives.

What do you get up to outside of work? As a houseowner, it seems like there’s always something to do outside work. When not working on the house, we enjoy spending time together with family and friends. Both our children plays football, so many weekends are spend on the sideline. Personally I have just experienced the joy of padel tennis, since a court have recently opened in my town, and I play this several times a week. We also enjoy travelling, and have found our own little special place in Tuscany where we spend minimum 14 days every summer, for the last six years. During the winter times we have been going to Asia, and this year we will go for a four-week road trip in California.

What’s your bucket list destination? There are two actually, both islands. Greenland have always been a place I would really like to experience, not only to see the nature but also to meet the people. Hawaii is the other, but something completely different.

Kaspar Nissen, air cargo specialist

Who are you and what do you do? I’m a 30 year old aviation geek with approximately ten years of experience in the air freight industry within airlines and freight forwarding. Currently responsible for cargo route development including cargo support to our key account management pax team and for our digitalisation project in the newly established CPH Cargo Community.

What are the best and worst parts of the job? I take great pleasure in representing CPH and the cargo opportunities we have in the airport when attending (Routes and Cargo) conferences around the world. When things get to administratively heavy I tend to get a bit restless and wanting to move on.

What are the biggest challenges and opportunities at the moment? The air freight market in general is currently quite challenged and we therefore see lower yields and tonnages than expected. This partly has to do with the aftereffects following Q3, Q4 in 2017 and Q1 in 2018 which was a highly peaking period in the industry, and also has to do with global political and economic instability including trade wars, stock and bonds markets. On the positive side, the industry have everything to win when talking digitalisation and e-commerce. The current lack of digitalization in the air freight industry, will make even first steps count and generally make the industry more efficient. Small steps towards a more digital environment will also enable a more structural approach to the rather undefined e-commerce market.

What do you get up to outside of work? I enjoy spending time with my family – my wife and I has recently become parents for the first time, so we spend a lot of time with our baby boy. Besides family, I spend a lot of on cardio training, mostly on bike, and I enjoy good food and good wine with close friends and family

What’s your bucket list destination? I really do enjoy experiencing countries I’ve never been to before. Especially Asian countries. I would like to experience more of the southern parts of USA and the entire region of Central America.

Eloïse Desbiens, marketing assistant for route development

Who are you and what do you do? My name is Eloïse, and I am a 25-year-old aviation geek in the making. I started as a student assistant in CPH in January 2018, and is currently the maternity cover for our marketing manager Tina Bendix. I started in ground handling in the airport five years ago and have been loving the industry ever since. My job is to help our key account managers and airlines with marketing, which includes coordinating our participation and stand on World Routes, making gate events for route openings and coordinating airline marketing on CPH channels.

What are the best and worst parts of the job? The best part about my job is meeting and helping airline customers, and learning more about the industry. The worst is that I am still also studying, but I am looking forward to achieving my master degree in the summer 2020.

What are the biggest challenges and opportunities at the moment? I believe our biggest challenge goes for the whole industry - enviromental concernes, and finding our feet and place in a changing market. Regarding opportunities I would say one of our top unserved routes - Seoul. I am ready to make a great welcoming gate event.

What do you get up to outside of work? I love to travel, seeing new cultures and meeting new people. I have also been a scout and scout leader in many years, and then I am a instructor in both wall and tree climbing.

What’s your bucket list destination? I have still not been to Asia, so there's a lot of Asian destinations that I would love to visit. Another dream is to go on a mini cruise in Croatia.