The island was for many years considered as a possible location for a new international airport and fixed link between Denmark and Sweden. The nearby Copenhagen Airport at Kastrup has long been the busiest airport in Scandinavia but has suffered from an acute shortage of space and its proximity to built-up areas. In 1965, the Nordic Council agreed in principle to build a new international airport on Saltholm, to replace the airport at Kastrup, and to construct a bridge-and-tunnel link across the island to connect Copenhagen and Malmö.Frantz Wilhelm Wendt, Cooperation in the Nordic Countries: Achievements and Obstacles, p. 204. Almqvist & Wiksell International, 1981. The proposal was strongly supported by Scandinavian Airlines System, the main user of Copenhagen Airport. The plan envisaged building two pairs of runways, which would carry up to 20 million passengers a year by 1990. A bridge would connect it to Malmö and a tunnel would link to Kastrup on the Danish side. The project was costed at the equivalent of £250 million in 1967 (£3.1 billion / €3.4 billion at 2009 prices).
