Cologne/Bonn Airport Cologne/Bonn Airport is Germany’s number 3 airport for freight, and number 6 for passenger numbers. It is ranked in 6th place in the top 50 of the largest air cargo handling locations in Europe, closely followed by Brussels-Zaventem in 7th place. In terms of passengers, the airport competes at national level in particular with the larger Düsseldorf airport just 49 km to the north and Weeze airport. Frankfurt am Main Airport is also in the catchment area, since it is only 50 minutes from Cologne by train. In addition to Leipzig/Halle and the Frankfurt-Hahn airport, Cologne/Bonn is a long-standing government airport and because of the air force facilities stationed here it is one of the few German airports without a night-time flight ban. This leads to noise pollution – in particular from night flights – in the heavily populated catchment area of the airport which covers the large cities of Cologne and Bonn, as well as the districts of the Rhein-Sieg-Kreis, Rhein-Bergischer Kreis und Oberbergischer Kreis. Despite the economic crisis and the departure of DHL and Lufthansa Cargo, the number of employees at the Cologne/Bonn airport has remained almost consistently high. At the end of 2009, a total of 12,216 employees were employed at the airport, only about two percent less than in 2007. This information comes from the current workplace survey at Cologne/Bonn Airport. Since a number of budget airlines moved here in 2001, the number of employees has increased by 28 percent. In 2014, 2015 and 2016, Cologne/Bonn Airport was voted the best regional airport in Europe in the Skytrax World Airport Awards Survey. In the global comparison, Cologne/Bonn Airport was ranked in second place. Traffic numbers of Cologne/Bonn Airport Year Passenger volume Flight movements Freight in tons 2001 5.802.347 150.174 448.426 2002 5.466.180 138.902 501.080 2003 7.838.302 153.372 527.364 2004 8.406.400 152.700 613.300 2005 9.479.291 154.594 650.947 2006 9.907.736 151.658 650.947 2007 10.474.952 151.658 719.077 2008 10.345.574 141.680 586.536 2009 9.742.350 132.173 559.406 2010 9.851.700 134.300 656.100 2011 9.625.483 130.926 742.347 2012 9.281.703 125.337 751.183 2013 9.079.001 120.388 739.553 2014 9.451.414 123.243 754.342 2015 10.339.200 128.620 757.702 2016 11.896.149 136.905 786.407 2017 12.384.223 141.338 838.526 Source: https://www.wikipedia.org/ (Status: 24.08.2018)