Cologne/bonn Airport

❎ Not Verified | Next time I’ll visit Cologne, I’ll drive there by car or by train. I came there from Hamburg, this airport is a complete disappointment and the worst thing this great city has! To be fair, it’s well connected by train, suburban and regional trains in the direction of Cologne Central Station and Troisdorf/Siegen/Frankfurt arrive there, mostly on-time and it has a station for coaches. The queuing times are also good but inside the building there is a lack of shopping facilities, especially behind the security scanners. I couldn’t find a single restaurant in the terminal area and outside the gate area it is expensive. The terminals aren’t even clean, there is a lack of (uncomfortable) seats and the wifi is just very slow. At least the staff is good because they’re friendly (such as most of the Cologne-citizen), organized and they definitely know how they can help you.

✅ Verified Review | I use Cologne airport quite frequently. The connection to the city centre by train (quite cheap, around Euro 3) or car is easy. The airport has just the right size: Large enough to offer many connections, small enough to be very efficient. Queues at check in and security are not predictable, sometimes you can just go ahead, sometimes you have to wait for about 20 minutes. Behind security you find only very few shops / restaurants, but I think this is ok, because the airport is not a hub. I saw some reviews here, that one should prefer Dusseldorf as an airport to travel to Cologne. I cannot support this opinion at all: Departure (security!) and arrival procedures in Dusseldorf are much more time consuming, one needs quite some time to transfer from the terminal to the airport train station and then you still have a quite lengthy trip to Cologne main station - usually in cramped trains - ahead of you.

✅ Verified Review | Cologne/Bonn is a nice middle size airport with two terminals. Nothing is really spectacular. Airport is clean and there are good opportunities for food and shopping. Negative aspect is that the airport is not rigorous regarding fast lane passengers. Sometimes the queues at the security are mixed and sometimes there not enough staff for fast lane customers such that waiting time in regular queues is even shorter. The seating design in terminal 1 is really bad, the access to the gates are always very crowded. Terminal 2 however is better regarding this issue. Terminal 2 is brighter and much better designed then Terminal 1.

❎ Unverified | I have to say, this is the best run airport I have passed through, the security was top notch and everybody was thoroughly screened. The staff were helpful, and the airport as a whole was calm, unlike the mad rush and confusion at Stansted where only a small percentage were checked. Here at Cologne airport, everybody was checked.

✅ Verified Review | My experience at the airport was unsatisfactory. The staff was rude, unhelpful and arrogant at the security. Also they refused to answer in English but clearly they understood what I was saying. The airport should review they way of treating customers, I'm a frequent flyer and have never been treated with this level of disrespect.

✅ Verified Review | The staff in this airport were rude and the security queue was unreasonably long. I arrived early at the airport because it was my first time flying from Cologne, only to have to wait for one hour outside security control because there were no staff available to perform the controls. The staff did not explain anything to the passengers waiting, leaving us wondering if our flights would even depart. On top of that, the staff were rude and only spoke in German even when spoken to in English. Luckily I did not miss my flight but the whole experience was very unpleasant. I will try to avoid this aiport in the future.

The worst airport, I’ve ever travelled in Germany. Let’s start with the good things here at CGN: It’s a pretty clean airport, the seats are comfortable and the WiFi works fabulous. That’s it. The terminal signs are confusing, even for a German citizen like me. You normally have to wait for a long time in the queues and behind the security check-lines there is a lack of shops and restaurants. Not to talk about the missing smoking areas, which is pretty bad for smokers like me. The airport staff seem to be annoyed of every question. So if I can just give you one hint: if you want to travel Cologne, fly to Düsseldorf airport and take one of the trains in the direction of Cologne there. It’s just better and even more comfortable because Düsseldorf Airport is the better one and you have to take the train or a rental car anyway.

✅ Verified Review | I use this airport fairly frequently. Restaurants, shops and similar services great, arrivals are superb. The structure of the airport is not ideal. The signs are confusing and you can easily end up at the wrong end of the building. Departure is a serious problem. It lies mainly in the security checks. The standard security staff are always friendly but the management is atrocious. As soon as there is a queue of more than 30 people your waiting time will exceed 20 minutes. There are plenty of lanes but I have never seen more than two in use. It happens a lot that a long queue has one of its conveyors shut down simply because the staff will take a break. The supervisor (never friendly, never) simply cuts you off and sends you to another queue even though five minutes before another supervisor told you that you are the last allowed through. This leads to unnecessary frustration and people queuing at airports for too long are cannot be treated like this. It is down to unqualified, indifferent supervisory staff left in charge of security. Sort it out, CGN! The next issue are inadequate passport controls to non-Schengen countries. One or two officers are simply not enough. Normally you could say that you "had a bad day" but this happens every single time I fly from CGN and management is not solving these very obvious issues. Lastly, the hygiene at the airport is perfectly fine except for the toilet design. You cannot have doors with handles at busy international airports. They must be walk-in-and-out toilets. There are many aspects that are simply not taken seriously enough at this airport.

✅ Verified Review | Airport is great for arrivals, no queues and quick check. Good train connection to Cologne, close to airport and 15 mins away from Cologne city centre. Terrible service for departures - rude staff, huge queues. Not recommended. Staff during check in stopping people without any reason resulting in even longer queues.

Cologne airport has a shambolic track record when it comes to security controls. Long queues are common and it seems that the airport is surprised that there are periods in which more passengers travel. It is really infuriating how the supervisors just shrug their shoulders and when talking to senior airline and airport representatives, they all they there is nothing they can do because it is the Federal Police that is in charge. Having written several letters, finally to the MD of the airport, there is very little in his reply that could restore my confidence. What adds insult to injury is the fact that Eurowings is asking passengers to pay real money for the privilege of using a fast track lane ("Best" tariff) but can, 5 out of 10 not deliver on a promise of fast track. Flying from Cologne at least once a week, I have started playing the sad game to memorize the person behind me, using the normal security lanes, and see who is quicker: this person or me in "fast track". As I said, half the times fast track is snail pace (also because nobody really takes charge of it) compared to the normal lanes. Knowing when to use which is the roulette that I would rather not play, having paid for a privilege. At least, I have the privilege of using a lounge - relying on the terminal seating would infuriate me even more as there is too little space for too many passengers.