Cologne Bonn Airport

CGN originated in 1938, as it was built for the German Luftwaffe. After the conclusion of WWII, it was expanded by the British military as RAF Wahn, with a 1,866-meter runway. In 1950, it was opened for civilian use to serve both Cologne and Bonn, West Germany’s new capital. The first international route was initiated on January 1st, 1951, via BEA, London-Cologne/Bonn-Berlin. The second and third runways opened in 1954 and 1961, respectively. The first intercontinental route was to New York City via Lufthansa. In 1970, a new passenger terminal (now Terminal 1) was inaugurated. Passenger and freight facilities were expanded significantly during the 1970s, with the airport servicing over 2 million people for the first time in 1978. In 1986, UPS (United Parcel Service) chose CGN as their European hub, and TNT Express chose to do the same in 1988. The airport serviced 3 million passengers in 1990, prompting a new expansion program in the mid-1990s. This included new parking lots, a new air traffic control tower, a second terminal, and a new long-distance railway station that opened in 2004. The expansions coincided with the rise of several low-cost airlines in Germany, which allowed the airport to make the airlines attractive offers. As such, in 2002, both Germanwings and TUIfly established a hub at CGN, which brought about a 43% increase in passengers in 2003.
Moreover, easyJet joined in late 2003, with Wizz Air joining in 2006. In May 2012, low-cost carriers Ryanair and Norwegian Air Shuttle began service to CGN. In contrast, in December 2014, Lufthansa announced that it would base Eurowings’ new long-haul base at CGN, with service to Florida, Southern Africa, and the Indian Ocean. The base was moved to Düsseldorf in October 2018, leaving CGN with no long-haul passenger flights.

The airport is located in the district of Porz, 7.5 miles southeast of the Cologne city center and 9.9 miles northeast of Bonn. 

• In 2006, the Canadian Air Force began using CGN as a staging area to move troops and supplies supporting humanitarian operations and possible anti-terrorism roles. 
• CGN has a lot of competition, as the larger Düsseldorf Airport is only 30 miles north. In contrast, Frankfurt Airport (Germany's major international airport) can be reached by the ICE train in 47 minutes. 
• The airport is named after Konrad Adenauer, the first post-WWII Chancellor of West Germany. 
• FBOs at CGN include CAS Cologne Aviation Services and Jet Aviation Cologne.