1 · POSITION
SAS extended its reception of travellers into central Copenhagen with the Royal Hotel, opened in 1960. Designed by Arne Jacobsen, the project combined hotel accommodation with an airline terminal. A guest could encounter the carrier through a room, a restaurant and a place to check in for a flight, before reaching the airport itself. [1, 2]
2 · THE AIRLINE REACHES THE CITY
The terminal portion opened in 1959. Passengers checked in and waited there before SAS buses took them to their aircraft. This arrangement placed part of the airport process within the city and beside the hotel. It made the building an interface between staying in Copenhagen and leaving it, with the airline involved in both experiences. [2]
3 · AN INTERIOR DRAWN TOGETHER
Jacobsen designed the setting down to furniture, lighting and restaurant objects. The Egg and Swan chairs belonged to this larger commission rather than arriving as later decorative quotations. Their curved forms gave the interior a different character from the rectilinear tower outside. The guest's encounter with modern architecture continued at the scale of sitting, eating and handling objects. [2]
4 · ROUTES AND ROOMS
The hotel followed another significant SAS development: scheduled Copenhagen–Los Angeles services via the polar region in 1954. The two projects addressed different parts of international travel. One reorganised the route between continents; the other supplied a place of reception in the city. Together they show how an airline's commercial world could extend beyond selling the flight itself. [1]
5 · ⚑ CANDOUR
⚑ The Royal was a city hotel with an airline terminal, not a hotel beside the airport. Calling it the world's first modern airport hotel obscures its actual arrangement. It now operates as the Radisson Collection Royal Hotel, and the original airline terminal has closed. The historical commission remains important without implying that every room or service survives unchanged. [2, 3]
Sources & Further Reading
Sources checked 24 September 2026.