Why are there so many night flights at Cologne Bonn Airport?

Cologne Bonn (CGN/EDDK) is Germany's big night-cargo airport — the European hub for UPS with roughly 140 flights a week, plus major FedEx and DHL operations. Its operating permit grants unrestricted 24/7 night-flight rights, currently valid to 31 October 2030, which is exactly what Frankfurt and Düsseldorf don't have. Widebody freighters therefore arrive and depart between 10 PM and 6 AM every night, and the heaviest departures climb out over Porz, Rösrath, Troisdorf and Lohmar.

Which areas around Cologne Bonn Airport are quietest?

The main runway runs northwest–southeast, so the loudest places lie on that axis — Grengel, Urbach and Wahn in Köln-Porz to the northwest, Lohmar and Siegburg to the southeast — plus Rösrath and Troisdorf near the crosswind runway. Areas off the axis, like Niederkassel along the Rhine or western Cologne across the river, see far less. Drop a pin on the map above to check any specific address.

Is Porz loud from planes?

Yes — the Porz districts of Grengel, Urbach, Elsdorf and Wahn are among the most affected in the region. They sit directly off the northwest end of the 3,815 m main runway (13L/31R), under both night freighter climbouts on 31R and the final approach to 13L. Noise groups document that 31R carries a disproportionate share of night departures — around 44% at night versus roughly 28% by day. Use the pin-drop tool above to see your street's exposure.

Which runways does Cologne Bonn Airport use?

Three. The main runway 13L/31R (3,815 m, renamed from 14L/32R in April 2024) runs NW–SE and handles nearly all heavy cargo, day and night. A short parallel runway 13R/31L (1,863 m) takes smaller and general-aviation traffic. The crosswind runway 06/24 (2,459 m) is used mainly for landings — approaches to 06 come in from the southwest over Wahn and Troisdorf-Spich, approaches to 24 descend from the northeast over Rösrath.

Do flights from Cologne Bonn go over Bergisch Gladbach?

Yes — after departing runway 31R to the northwest, eastbound flights branch right over Forsbach, Refrath and Bensberg, which are named waypoints on the published departure branches. Bergisch Gladbach hosts one of the airport's noise monitoring stations. Traffic there is at climb altitude, so it's less intense than in Porz, but the eastbound night freighters are clearly audible.

What happens to Cologne Bonn's night flights after 2030?

The current night-flight regulation runs to 31 October 2030. The airport operator has applied to the NRW transport ministry for an indefinite extension of its night-flight rights and the associated noise-protection obligations; the decision is still pending. Local campaign groups and several municipalities are pushing in the opposite direction, for at least a ban on passenger flights at night — a measure NRW actually ordered in 2012 before the federal government vetoed it.

How do I complain about aircraft noise from Cologne Bonn Airport?

The statutory noise-protection officer (Lärmschutzbeauftragter) for Cologne Bonn sits at the Bezirksregierung Düsseldorf, Dezernat 26 Luftverkehr — reachable at fluglaerm@brd.nrw.de or +49 211 475-32890. The airport operator also runs its own complaints and community-relations desk (tel. 02203 404718), and Troisdorf operates a municipal flight-noise complaints service for its residents.

Does this map capture the night cargo flights?

Yes — the heatmap and route-density layers are built from actual tracked movements around the clock, so the overnight UPS, FedEx and DHL waves are fully represented. That matters at CGN more than almost anywhere else, because the noisiest traffic here flies between 10 PM and 6 AM, exactly when official day-average noise figures understate what residents actually hear.

Cologne Flight Path Noise Map – Cologne Bonn Airport (CGN)

Name: Aircraft noise observations near Cologne Bonn Airport
Creator: Flight Path Noise
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Aircraft noise around Cologne in October 2026

Loudest neighborhoods near Cologne: Köln-Grengel (Porz), Köln-Wahn / Wahnheide (Porz), Köln-Urbach / Elsdorf (Porz), Rösrath (incl. Forsbach, Hoffnungsthal), Troisdorf (Spich, Oberlar). Quietest: Overath, Hennef (Sieg), Niederkassel. Busiest around 10 AM local time averaging 462 flights/day. Source: Flight Path Noise monitoring data, 30 days to 2026-10-19.

Flights by hour · last 30 days

12a6a12p6p

Average daily traffic

462

flights / day · 13,859 total

Busiest hour

10 AM

peak 95 dB

Loudest hour

10 AM

peak 95 dB

Loudest residential area

Köln-Grengel (Porz)

69 dB avg · ~362 flights/day · Busy road

Directly off the northwest end of main runway 31R — under night freighter climbouts and the 13L final approach; hosts a noise monitoring station

Does Cologne Airport have a curfew?

No — Cologne Bonn is Germany's only major airport with full 24/7 night-flight rights, currently valid to 31 October 2030.

Cologne Bonn is the deliberate opposite of Frankfurt and Düsseldorf, both of which shut down overnight. CGN holds unrestricted night-flight rights under its operating permit — currently running to 31 October 2030 — and has built its business on them: it is UPS’s European hub and a major FedEx and DHL station, so widebody freighters arrive and depart right through the night. The politics are long-running. In April 2012 the North Rhine-Westphalia state government ordered a midnight-to-5 AM ban on passenger flights, but the Federal Transport Ministry vetoed it that September as an unlawful partial revocation of the valid permit; cargo flights were never restricted. Instead of a curfew, mitigation is economic and technical — steeply tiered night noise surcharges (sharply increased from January 2026, roughly doubling by 2028 for the loudest freighters like the B747-400) and a residential sound-insulation programme covering tens of thousands of bedrooms in the statutory night-protection zone. The airport has applied to extend its night-flight regulation indefinitely beyond 2030; that decision is still pending, and local campaigners continue to push for at least a passenger night ban.

Cologne Bonn Airport “Konrad Adenauer” (CGN/EDDK) is the inverse of almost every other big German airport. While Frankfurt and Düsseldorf shut down overnight, CGN holds unrestricted 24/7 night-flight rights — currently valid to 31 October 2030 — and has built its business on night freight. It is UPS’s European hub (roughly 140 flights a week) and a major FedEx and DHL station, so the heaviest noise arrives between 10 PM and 6 AM, when widebody freighters climb out of the Wahner Heide over Porz, Wahn, Rösrath, Troisdorf and Lohmar. The politics are just as distinctive: in 2012 the NRW state government ordered a night ban on passenger flights, only for the Federal Transport Ministry to veto it as unlawful, and the fight over what happens when the night-flight rights expire in 2030 still dominates local debate. For residents under the paths, the practical question is less “how loud is the day” than “which runway is in use at 3 AM.”

Which neighborhoods are quietest — and which aren’t

The airport sits in the Wahner Heide at Köln-Porz, about 15 km southeast of Cologne’s centre and 16 km northeast of Bonn. It has three runways: the main 13L/31R (3,815 m, renamed from 14L/32R in April 2024), which runs northwest–southeast and carries nearly all heavy cargo including at night; the short parallel 13R/31L (1,863 m) for smaller and general-aviation traffic; and the crosswind runway 06/24 (2,459 m), used mainly for landings.

Area	Aircraft noise	Why
Köln-Grengel (Porz)	✈︎✈︎✈︎	Directly off the 31R end; night freighter climbouts and 13L finals
Köln-Wahn / Wahnheide	✈︎✈︎✈︎	On the airfield’s western edge, under the 06 approach
Köln-Urbach / Elsdorf	✈︎✈︎✈︎	Extended centreline of the main runway; overflown day and night
Rösrath (Forsbach)	✈︎✈︎✈︎	Under the 24 approach and eastbound 31R departure branches
Troisdorf (Spich)	✈︎✈︎✈︎	Beneath the 06 approach, close to southeast-side operations
Lohmar	✈︎✈︎✈︎	Southeast extension of the main axis; 13L departures, 31R arrivals
Köln-Neubrück / Ostheim	✈︎✈︎	Under the northwest corridor at higher altitude
Siegburg	✈︎✈︎	Long final to 31R; night cargo arrivals
Bergisch Gladbach (Refrath, Bensberg)	✈︎✈︎	Eastbound branch routes after 31R departures
Sankt Augustin	✈︎✈︎	Beside southeast-side tracks; higher-altitude overflights
Overath	✈︎	Eastbound departures at climb altitude
Hennef (Sieg)	✈︎	Far southeast arrival axis at intermediate altitude
Niederkassel	✈︎	Off the main axis; mainly crosswind-runway traffic

The pattern to internalise: the noise map here is drawn along a single northwest–southeast diagonal, with a secondary crosswind band running southwest–northeast. If you’re house-hunting and aircraft noise matters, the places to scrutinise hardest are the Porz districts (Grengel, Urbach, Elsdorf, Wahn), Rösrath, Troisdorf-Spich, Lohmar and Siegburg — and because so much of CGN’s traffic flies at night, an address that seems fine on a daytime visit can be a different story at 3 AM. Drop a pin on the map above and check the hourly breakdown, not just the daily average.

Flight patterns and runway use

Direction of operation is wind-driven (prevailing westerlies), but the long-term split is unusually even: roughly 44% of arrivals come from the northwest over Cologne’s eastern districts and about 39% from the southeast over the Rhein-Sieg district, while around 55% of departures head southeast toward Lohmar and Siegburg. Departures off 31R climb northwest over Grengel and Urbach toward the Königsforst before branching — east over Forsbach, Refrath and Bensberg, or west across Cologne’s southern districts. Departures off 13L and arrivals onto 31R run the southeast axis over Lohmar and Siegburg.

Night traffic doesn’t simply mirror the day. Local noise groups (FLSR) document that the 31R direction carries a disproportionate share of night departures — about 44% at night versus roughly 28% by day — which sends the night freighters northwest over Porz and then east over the Rösrath and Bergisch Gladbach suburbs on the eastbound branches. The published departure routes themselves were last significantly redrawn by DFS in the late 1990s, so the corridors are stable and predictable; what varies is which end is in use.

The crosswind runway 06/24 is mostly a landing runway. Approaches to 06 come in from the southwest over Wahn and Troisdorf-Spich; approaches to 24 descend from the northeast over Rösrath — one reason Rösrath is squeezed from two directions and remains one of the most vocal night-noise communities in the region.

Unlike some hubs, there is no night runway-alternation scheme to share the burden. Mitigation is economic and technical instead: steeply tiered night noise surcharges, sharply increased from 1 January 2026 (the surcharge for a noise-class-9 B747-400 rose about 75% to €809, stepping to €1,214 by January 2028, with discounts for quieter types like the A320neo and 787), and a residential sound-insulation programme that has spent over €78 million fitting roughly 40,500 bedrooms in the statutory night-protection zone.

When is it quietest?

CGN’s daily profile is the reverse of a curfewed airport — the night is not the quiet part:

10 PM – 6 AM: the defining CGN window. Overnight cargo waves for UPS, FedEx and DHL — widebody freighters arriving, sorting and departing in banks through the small hours. This is when the loudest individual movements occur.
6 AM – 9 AM: passenger morning bank on top of late cargo departures — Eurowings and other short-haul waves.
Midday (10 AM – 3 PM): the genuinely calmer stretch. Passenger traffic is moderate and the cargo hub is largely dormant.
Evening (5 PM – 10 PM): passenger arrivals and departures build again, transitioning into the first cargo arrivals late evening.

Seasonally, summer brings more passenger charter traffic; the cargo rhythm runs year-round, with peaks around e-commerce seasons. Wind direction matters more than season for any single address: a switch in operating direction moves the climbout noise from Porz’s side of the field to Lohmar and Siegburg’s, or vice versa.

If your priority is sleep, compare addresses by their night-hours numbers on the map above rather than the 24-hour average — that distinction matters more at Cologne Bonn than at almost any other German airport.

How to check noise at your specific address

The map above is the answer to “is this street loud?” Three steps:

Search your address or postcode in the bar at the bottom of the map.
Drop a pin — click the location marker that appears.
Read the noise report that opens in the sidebar: average daily noise (Leq), peak observed dB, flights per day passing within 2 km, and an hourly breakdown.

The Noise Heatmap layer (orange/red = louder) and the Route Density layer (purple/magenta = busier corridors) make the northwest–southeast diagonal and the crosswind band obvious at a glance. Pay particular attention to the hourly breakdown: at CGN, two addresses with similar daily totals can have very different nights, and the night freighters — not the daytime passenger jets — are what most residents here are really asking about. If a formal complaint is warranted, the noise-protection officer for the airport sits at the Bezirksregierung Düsseldorf (fluglaerm@brd.nrw.de, +49 211 475-32890), and the airport operator runs its own community desk on 02203 404718.

Frequently asked questions

Why are there so many night flights at Cologne Bonn Airport?: Cologne Bonn (CGN/EDDK) is Germany's big night-cargo airport — the European hub for UPS with roughly 140 flights a week, plus major FedEx and DHL operations. Its operating permit grants unrestricted 24/7 night-flight rights, currently valid to 31 October 2030, which is exactly what Frankfurt and Düsseldorf don't have. Widebody freighters therefore arrive and depart between 10 PM and 6 AM every night, and the heaviest departures climb out over Porz, Rösrath, Troisdorf and Lohmar.
Which areas around Cologne Bonn Airport are quietest?: The main runway runs northwest–southeast, so the loudest places lie on that axis — Grengel, Urbach and Wahn in Köln-Porz to the northwest, Lohmar and Siegburg to the southeast — plus Rösrath and Troisdorf near the crosswind runway. Areas off the axis, like Niederkassel along the Rhine or western Cologne across the river, see far less. Drop a pin on the map above to check any specific address.
Is Porz loud from planes?: Yes — the Porz districts of Grengel, Urbach, Elsdorf and Wahn are among the most affected in the region. They sit directly off the northwest end of the 3,815 m main runway (13L/31R), under both night freighter climbouts on 31R and the final approach to 13L. Noise groups document that 31R carries a disproportionate share of night departures — around 44% at night versus roughly 28% by day. Use the pin-drop tool above to see your street's exposure.
Which runways does Cologne Bonn Airport use?: Three. The main runway 13L/31R (3,815 m, renamed from 14L/32R in April 2024) runs NW–SE and handles nearly all heavy cargo, day and night. A short parallel runway 13R/31L (1,863 m) takes smaller and general-aviation traffic. The crosswind runway 06/24 (2,459 m) is used mainly for landings — approaches to 06 come in from the southwest over Wahn and Troisdorf-Spich, approaches to 24 descend from the northeast over Rösrath.
Do flights from Cologne Bonn go over Bergisch Gladbach?: Yes — after departing runway 31R to the northwest, eastbound flights branch right over Forsbach, Refrath and Bensberg, which are named waypoints on the published departure branches. Bergisch Gladbach hosts one of the airport's noise monitoring stations. Traffic there is at climb altitude, so it's less intense than in Porz, but the eastbound night freighters are clearly audible.
What happens to Cologne Bonn's night flights after 2030?: The current night-flight regulation runs to 31 October 2030. The airport operator has applied to the NRW transport ministry for an indefinite extension of its night-flight rights and the associated noise-protection obligations; the decision is still pending. Local campaign groups and several municipalities are pushing in the opposite direction, for at least a ban on passenger flights at night — a measure NRW actually ordered in 2012 before the federal government vetoed it.
How do I complain about aircraft noise from Cologne Bonn Airport?: The statutory noise-protection officer (Lärmschutzbeauftragter) for Cologne Bonn sits at the Bezirksregierung Düsseldorf, Dezernat 26 Luftverkehr — reachable at fluglaerm@brd.nrw.de or +49 211 475-32890. The airport operator also runs its own complaints and community-relations desk (tel. 02203 404718), and Troisdorf operates a municipal flight-noise complaints service for its residents.
Does this map capture the night cargo flights?: Yes — the heatmap and route-density layers are built from actual tracked movements around the clock, so the overnight UPS, FedEx and DHL waves are fully represented. That matters at CGN more than almost anywhere else, because the noisiest traffic here flies between 10 PM and 6 AM, exactly when official day-average noise figures understate what residents actually hear.

Sources and further reading

Cologne Bonn Airport — Wikipedia
Flugbetrieb — Lärmschutzgemeinschaft Flughafen Köln/Bonn — Lärmschutzgemeinschaft Flughafen Köln/Bonn e.V.
Betriebsrichtungen und Abflugrouten — Fluglärmschutz Rhein-Berg (FLSR)
Flughafen KölnBonn — Bundesverkehrsminister untersagt Nachtflugverbot — Land Nordrhein-Westfalen
Cologne/Bonn Airport applies for indefinite extension of night flight regulations — Aviation.Direct
Lärmschutzkonzept des Köln Bonn Airport (Umlandportal) — Flughafen Köln/Bonn GmbH

Data updated 2026-10-19 — live ADS-B monitoring, rolling 30-day statistics (methodology). Article text revised 2026-07-17.

30 dB	Whisper
45 dB	Quiet residential
55 dB	Normal conversation
65 dB	Busy road
75 dB	Vacuum cleaner
85 dB	Heavy traffic
95 dB	Motorcycle nearby

Flight Noise

Layers

Live Tracking

Filters

Saved Pins

Flight Noise — User Manual

What is this?

Live Tracking

Heatmap

Flight Paths

Point Analysis

Noise Level Reference

Filters

Tips

Share this map

Pins shared with you

Cologne Flight Path Noise Map – Cologne Bonn Airport (CGN)

Aircraft noise around Cologne in October 2026

Does Cologne Airport have a curfew?

Which neighborhoods are quietest — and which aren’t

Flight patterns and runway use

When is it quietest?

How to check noise at your specific address

Frequently asked questions

Sources and further reading

Other airports we track

🇦🇺 Adelaide, Australia

🇪🇸 Alicante, Spain

🇳🇱 Amsterdam, Netherlands

🇦🇺 Archerfield, Australia

🇬🇷 Athens, Greece

🇺🇸 Atlanta, USA

🇳🇿 Auckland, New Zealand

🇺🇸 Austin, USA

🇮🇩 Bali, Indonesia

🇦🇺 Ballina, Australia

🇺🇸 Baltimore, USA

🇮🇳 Bangalore, India

🇹🇭 Bangkok, Thailand

🇦🇺 Bankstown, Australia

🇪🇸 Barcelona, Spain

🇫🇷 Basel, France

🇱🇧 Beirut, Lebanon

🇬🇧 Belfast City, UK

🇩🇪 Berlin, Germany

🇪🇸 Bilbao, Spain

🇨🇦 Billy Bishop, Canada

🇬🇧 Birmingham, UK

🇨🇴 Bogotá, Colombia

🇺🇸 Boston, USA

🇦🇺 Brisbane, Australia

🇬🇧 Bristol, UK

🇧🇪 Brussels, Belgium

🇧🇪 Brussels Charleroi, Belgium

🇭🇺 Budapest, Hungary

🇦🇷 Buenos Aires, Argentina

🇦🇺 Canberra, Australia

🇿🇦 Cape Town, South Africa

🇨🇴 Cartagena, Colombia

🇺🇸 Charlotte, USA

🇹🇭 Chiang Mai, Thailand

🇺🇸 Chicago, USA

🇺🇸 Chicago O'Hare, USA

🇳🇿 Christchurch, New Zealand

🇩🇰 Copenhagen, Denmark

🇵🇪 Cusco, Peru

🇻🇳 Da Nang, Vietnam

🇺🇸 Dallas, USA

🇮🇳 Delhi, India

🇺🇸 Denver, USA

🇺🇸 Detroit, USA

🇺🇸 DFW, USA

🇶🇦 Doha, Qatar

🇹🇭 Don Mueang, Thailand

🇦🇪 Dubai, UAE

🇮🇪 Dublin, Ireland

🇩🇪 Düsseldorf, Germany

🇬🇧 Edinburgh, UK

🇳🇱 Eindhoven, Netherlands

🇵🇹 Faro, Portugal

Adelaide, Australia

Alicante, Spain

Amsterdam, Netherlands

Archerfield, Australia

Athens, Greece

Atlanta, USA

Auckland, New Zealand

Austin, USA

Bali, Indonesia

Ballina, Australia

Baltimore, USA

Bangalore, India

Bangkok, Thailand

Bankstown, Australia

Barcelona, Spain

Basel, France

Beirut, Lebanon

Belfast City, UK

Berlin, Germany

Bilbao, Spain

Billy Bishop, Canada

Birmingham, UK

Bogotá, Colombia

Boston, USA

Brisbane, Australia

Bristol, UK

Brussels, Belgium

Brussels Charleroi, Belgium

Budapest, Hungary

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Canberra, Australia

Cape Town, South Africa

Cartagena, Colombia

Charlotte, USA

Chiang Mai, Thailand

Chicago, USA

Chicago O'Hare, USA

Christchurch, New Zealand

Copenhagen, Denmark

Cusco, Peru

Da Nang, Vietnam

Dallas, USA

Delhi, India

Denver, USA

Detroit, USA

DFW, USA

Doha, Qatar

Don Mueang, Thailand

Dubai, UAE

Dublin, Ireland

Düsseldorf, Germany

Edinburgh, UK

Eindhoven, Netherlands

Faro, Portugal

Florence, Italy

Fort Lauderdale, USA

Frankfurt, Germany

Funchal, Portugal

Gatwick, UK

Geneva, Switzerland

Glasgow, UK

Gold Coast, Australia

Hamburg, Germany

Hanoi, Vietnam

Heathrow, UK

Helsinki, Finland

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Hobart, Australia

Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Honolulu, USA

Houston, USA

Houston IAH, USA

Ibiza, Spain

Jandakot, Australia

John Wayne, USA

Kathmandu, Nepal

Keflavík, Iceland

Kraków, Poland

Las Vegas, USA

LAX, USA