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Cologne/Bonn Airport (CGN)

Last verified: October 2026 · Confirmed by travelers this month: 0

The answer
Take the S19 S-Bahn — €4.00 for a Rheinlandtarif Preisstufe 1b single, about 14 minutes to Köln Hauptbahnhof, every 20 minutes, from a station directly under Terminal 1.
The airport has its own station inside the city of Cologne, so the whole journey sits in one price level and costs €4.00 — cheaper than a taxi to the outskirts of town and faster than the express bus to Bonn.
Heavy bags? The S19 station is a covered walkway from both terminals and drops you at Köln Hauptbahnhof, 200 m from the Cathedral.
Going to Bonn? The SB60 express bus looks cheap and is not: €5.50 for the fare plus a €5.00 Schnellbus supplement.

🚆 Every way out — real prices

S19 S-Bahn BEST FOR MOST
€4.00
About 14–15 min to Köln Hauptbahnhof and Köln Messe/Deutz, every 20 min, and the only S-Bahn that uses the airport's own station, directly under Terminal 1 with covered walkways to both terminals. It runs all night, every 30 min between about 21:00 and 04:00. The fare is Rheinlandtarif Preisstufe 1b — €4.00 adult, €1.80 for children 6 to 14 — because the whole journey stays inside Cologne.
RE6 / RB27 regional trains
€4.00
RegionalExpress RE6 (Minden–Düsseldorf–Cologne–airport) and RegionalBahn RB27 (Mönchengladbach–Cologne–airport–Troisdorf–Koblenz) each call hourly, so together they roughly double the frequency towards Köln Hbf and Messe/Deutz. Same Preisstufe 1b fare, but buy a local ticket — you do not need an IC or ICE ticket for these.
ICE / IC long-distance
ICE fare
The airport has its own long-distance station: ICE 45 runs to Wiesbaden, Mainz, Mannheim, Heidelberg and Stuttgart, ICE 49 to Siegburg, Montabaur, Limburg and Frankfurt Airport, and selected ICE 10 and ICE 41 services link it with Düsseldorf, Essen and Dortmund. Individual services only — check before you rely on it.
SB60 express bus to Bonn
€10.50
The Schnellbus SB60 links the airport with Bonn Hauptbahnhof in about 25–30 min. It is not a cheap bus: the fare between Bonn and the airport is Rheinlandtarif Preisstufe 2 (€5.50) and the Schnellbus SB60 needs its own supplement of €5.00 per adult (€2.50 child), payable on top of whatever ticket you hold — €10.50 in total. Only worth it if Bonn is actually where you are going.
Taxi (official rank)
≈€50
Cologne's tariff from 1 June 2026: €4.90 base plus €2.90 per km, waiting 60 cents a minute (€36 per hour) and €6.00 extra for a large vehicle. Köln Hauptbahnhof is about 15 km and lands near €50; the run to Bonn is about €60. There is no night rate — the day tariff applies around the clock. From 1 March 2027 the base rises to €5.00 and the kilometre to €3.00.
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⚠️ The traps (walk past these)

The S13 does not serve the airport any more

The S13 was replaced course by course by the S19 and no longer runs through the airport loop; today the only S-Bahn at the airport station is the S19, every 20 min. A separate S13 is planned to return via Troisdorf and Bonn-Oberkassel, but it is not running. Airline pages, hotel directions and most travel guides still name the S13, and passengers who wait for it on the wrong platform watch the S19 leave without them.

Do this: look for S19 on the departure board and treat any mention of S13 as out of date
The express bus to Bonn costs €10.50, not €2.80

Travel blogs routinely quote about €2.80 for the SB60 to Bonn. Under the Rheinlandtarif the journey between Bonn and the airport is Preisstufe 2 at €5.50, and the Schnellbus SB60 carries a compulsory supplement of €5.00 per adult (€2.50 for children) that has to be bought before boarding and is payable even by holders of a pass or a free-travel ticket. That makes the real price €10.50 — two and a half times the S19 into Cologne.

Do this: take the S19 to Cologne, or budget €10.50 if Bonn is genuinely your destination
Every guide quotes the old VRS fare

On 1 June 2026 the Rheinlandtarif replaced both the VRS and AVV tariffs, collapsing seven price levels into four (1a, 1b, 2 and 3). The old VRS fare for the airport was €3.40, and that is the number still printed on most sites. The current Preisstufe 1b single is €4.00, the child fare €1.80 and the 24-hour ticket €9.60 for one person. The machines and apps were updated on day one, so the price on the screen is right even when the guide in your hand is wrong.

Do this: pay €4.00 for the airport single and ignore the €3.40 older guides quote
Cologne now has the most expensive taxi tariff in Germany

The city council raised the kilometre price from €2.60 to €2.90 on 1 June 2026, which makes a 7 km ride with four minutes of waiting cost €27.60 — more than the same ride in Munich. Since that decision a fixed price agreed in advance by phone or app may sit up to 20% above or 20% below the expected fare, so a "Festpreis" can legitimately be the higher number. The meter is the reference point, and the airport run is about €50.

Do this: ask for the meter unless the app price is clearly below it, and check the fare on screen at the airport rank

💡 Know before you walk

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