A quarter of children schooled outside public system, ‘sustainable’ flight set for takeoff, Vestas CEO threatens to move abroad and more news from Denmark this Wednesday.
One in four children schooled outside of public system
As many as one in four children in Denmark now go to private or free schools or are home schooled, meaning they are educated outside of the folkeskole public school system.
The figures come from an analysis by the thinktank Economic Council of the Labour Movement (Arbejderbevægelsens Erhvervsråd, AE) based on 2024 Statistics Denmark data.
AE’s senior analyst Troels Lund Jensen said the public school system risks losing its status.
“With more and more children opting out of public school either because they’re not thriving there or because their parents prefer private school options, there’s a risk that the public schools will lose their status as the natural choice of school,” Jensen said in a press statement.
New ‘sustainable fuel’ flight takes off for first time
Airline Norwegian’s new domestic service between Aalborg and Copenhagen is set to take off today.
The flight uses 40 percent of the sustainable fuel type SAF and receives government subsidies aimed at introducing low emissions domestic aviation in Denmark.
Norwegian’s service is scheduled to take off from Aalborg at 3:25pm today.
“We are reducing CO2 emissions by 3,000 tonnes a year, so it is a step in the right direction,” Sara Neergaard, country manager for Norwegian in Denmark, told news wire Ritzau.
The flight is part of a government’s plan titled Grøn luftfart i Danmark (‘Green Aviation in Denmark’), but Neergaard does not describe the new route as “green”.
“As long as we still have fossil fuel in the tank, it is de facto not green,” she said.
“It is clearly more sustainable than it was before. But as long as it is not possible to fly on 100 per cent SAF, we as a commercial airline cannot market it as green,” she said.
READ ALSO: Airline Norwegian to operate Danish low emissions domestic flight
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Vestas CEO threatens to leave Denmark if wealth tax introduced
Henrik Andersen, CEO with Danish wind turbine maker Vestas, says he will move abroad if Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen’s proposed wealth tax becomes a reality.
“I’ll be spending some of my time finding out where I’m going to live. I can’t say it more clearly than that,” Andersen told conservative newspaper Berlingske.
Frederiksen announced the plan as a Social Democratic policy when she called the general election last week. The other two parties in the current coalition government, the Moderates and Liberals (Venstre), both oppose it, citing a potential negative impact on businesses and the economy.
Andersen said that the exit of Vestas’ CEO from Denmark would also result in “some of Vestas’ investment decisions also moving out of Denmark.”
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Copenhagen Airport flights disrupted by war in Middle East
Flight departures and arrivals at Copenhagen Airport have been affected by the ongoing war in the Middle East, the airport said on Tuesday.
As of Tuesday, 47 flights had been cancelled between Copenhagen and Middle East destinations including routes to Dubai, Doha, Abu Dhabi, Erbil, Muscat and Tel Aviv.
Around 12,000 passengers have so far been affected.
“Safety is our absolute top priority, and it remains unclear how long the airspace over the region will stay closed,” Copenhagen Airport commercial director Peter Krogsgaard said in a press release.