Originally Posted by
ISTFlyer
Most people from those nationalities need a transit visa obtained by an embassy even for an airside transfer at Madrid, Amsterdam or any other European hub thus that is the reason why those people fly TK as Turkey doesn't require any airside transit visa from most of those nationalities.
Haven't been to Denmark yet but that application is still in progress at multiple Schengen countries despite the airline.
During COVID-19, the German Bundespolizei even did the same checks for flights arriving from the USA into Frankfurt which was interesting to witness.
The UK has the same rule. I was really surprised by this when a Chinese friend told me that she couldn't fly BA home without a visa and she said it was troublesome and expensive. I told her, "but you would be only at airside", she said "yes, even only at airside. I googled about it a couple of days ago and there is still a direct airside transit visa.
The last surprise check by the gate at CPH was more than 5 years ago. Basically as soon as the plane landed there was an announcement that we had to get our passport ready for inspection upon exiting the aircraft. I remember once there was the same announcement and we had our passports ready and there was no one checking by the gate
It doesn't matter since it's from a non-schengen zone so our passports would be checked eventually anyway.
As you know CPH is my hub so I have been on other airlines including Thai and QR, the only airlines that I got these "VIP" treatments were Thai and TK.