75 years of CGN

In the 1950s, the Royal Air Force handed over the airport, which had previously been under NATO control, to the German authorities. The British airmen held the airport in particularly high regard as an ‘island in a sea of fog’. They called the clear view in the heath in otherwise foggy weather conditions the ‘Wahn gap’.

The terminal building was initially a simple structure at the western end of the crosswind runway at the end of the 1950s, whose lush flowerbeds earned it the nickname ‘Flower Airport’. In 1963, new handling facilities were put into operation. The flowerbeds remained in the 1960s, as did the nickname.

On 17 March 1961, the new runway is opened; there are now three. Two run parallel from northwest to southeast, one crosses them. On 20 March, Air France takes off for the first long-haul charter flight via Anchorage to Tokyo. On 30 April, Lufthansa opens international scheduled services with a non-stop flight to New York using a Boeing 707.

On 20 March 1970, Federal President Gustav Heinemann inaugurates the new passenger terminal. Part of the functional concept of the architect Paul Schneider von Esleben includes generously laid out parking areas and driveways for the shortest possible distances to the aircraft. Terminal 1 is considered a pioneering achievement in airport typology.

After a stay at Cologne/Bonn Airport in 1977, British musician Brian Eno composed overlapping tape loops and called them ‘Music for Airports’. The loops were intended to have a calming effect on passengers and create space for them to think.

On 20 May 1983, 300,000 visitors were amazed when a NASA delegation landed with a Boeing 747, on the fuselage of which the space shuttle Enterprise was mounted. This spectacular event was only possible because Cologne/Bonn met the high requirements for an emergency landing site for space shuttles due to its excellent technical standards.

On 15 September 1986, the American freight company UPS set up its first European hub. Initially, a large tent was pitched on the airfield and one DC-8 was unloaded there every night, with around 40 employees sorting the parcels manually. In those pioneering days, there were no sorting halls of their own yet. UPS put its first own aircraft into operation in Cologne/Bonn in 1987.

On 4 October 1994, the official renaming of the airport to ‘Cologne/Bonn Airport – Konrad Adenauer’ took place after the Adenauer family had given their consent. The airport's namesake shaped the two most important cities in the region, having spent the longest and most significant phases of his life in this region.

On 21 September 2000, the new Terminal 2 was inaugurated. The building, which is 300 metres long and 75 metres deep, was designed by the Chicago architect Helmut Jahn. The modern façade is completely glazed over an area of 12,500 m², and the roof is also made of glass.

On 27 October 2002, the low-cost era begins at Cologne Bonn Airport. Germanwings is the first ‘low-cost airline’ to take off. On 3 December, TUI's HLX, another ‘low-cost airline’, follows suit and also declares CGN its home airport. In Europe, Milan, Venice, Naples, Pisa and London are initially part of the route network.

In 2003, the airport's unmistakable corporate design was introduced, which is still visible today. Pictograms, bright corporate colours, a corporate typeface and a new logo now permeate the entire airport. In addition to the striking look, there are also catchy new corporate acoustics with prominent voices.

In 2004, the airport railway station went into operation. The airport was connected to the new Cologne-Rhein/Main line, and thus to the European high-speed rail network and to local public transport. In 15 minutes, travellers can reach Cologne Cathedral.

On the occasion of the World Youth Day, Pope Benedict XVI visits the airport on 18 August 2005. The special Alitalia aircraft lands on runway 14L in bright sunshine. Seven different authorities were involved in the planning, and a 50-strong project team from the airport had prepared the visit for months.

On 28 June 2010, the American freight company FedEx opened a transshipment centre for southern and eastern Europe. The location, with its state-of-the-art, environmentally friendly aircraft fleet, is one of the most important logistics hubs in Europe. In March 2012, FedEx was the first company on the ground to bring the B777-F to the runway.

Since 2011, Cologne Bonn Airport has had a new terminal for general aviation. The General Aviation Terminal (GAT) handles private and business aviation. Its customers include stars such as Madonna, Robbie Williams, Lady Gaga and the German national football team. The 1,200-square-metre terminal includes a VIP lounge as well as office and conference rooms, including for the federal police and customs authorities.

After around six weeks at Cologne/Bonn Airport, SOFIA, the world's only flying infrared observatory, will take off for its home base in Palmdale, California, on 16 March 2021. NASA and DLR's mobile observatory will conduct 15 research flights from Cologne/Bonn Airport beforehand. Space has been provided in Terminal 2 for 150 NASA and DLR employees.

Cologne Bonn Airport is getting a new, state-of-the-art control centre: the Airport Operation Control Center (AOCC), which has been in operation since February 2023, is where all processes related to flight operations, passengers and cargo are planned, controlled and monitored. The control centre, located in the middle of Terminal 1, has 24 workstations and a 15-metre-wide video wall composed of 20 screens.

Since 1 January 2025, the airport has been responsible for organising, controlling and implementing aviation security checks and calculating and billing aviation security fees at Cologne/Bonn Airport. The advantage of taking over control from the federal police is that the airport decides which approved control technology is used and the processes are managed more efficiently – from arrival to departure.