Cologne Bonn Airport Transfer: S19, SB60 or Taxi – What Each City Costs

Cologne Bonn Airport – CGN – carries two cities in its name but sits firmly in one: the Cologne district of Porz, east of the Rhine. That shapes every sum you’ll do. Cologne is 16 to 18 road kilometres away and the S-Bahn gets you to the Hauptbahnhof in a quarter of an hour. Bonn is more like 25 to 27 kilometres, there’s no direct S-Bahn, and a Cologne taxi will take you there on the Cologne meter. Here are the real prices in both directions as of autumn 2026 – including a change coming for Bonn in December.

To Cologne: four euros and fifteen minutes

The airport station sits right by both terminals, with access from the basement of Terminal 2 and from the check-in area of Terminal 1. According to the airport it’s served around the clock. Towards Cologne Hauptbahnhof you have:

• the S19, every 20 minutes by day and every 30 minutes at night,
• the RE6 (RRX) towards Cologne, Düsseldorf and the Ruhr,
• some RB26 trains (MittelrheinBahn) that continue via Cologne to Bonn and Koblenz,
• plus ICE trains on the Cologne–Rhine/Main high-speed line.

The run to the Hauptbahnhof takes 11 to 15 minutes depending on the train. Since 1 June 2026 the region has used the new Rheinlandtarif with just three fare levels. As both the airport and the centre are inside Cologne, fare level 1b is all you need:

• Single ticket: €4.00, children €1.80
• 24-hour ticket, one person: €9.60
• 24-hour ticket for up to five people: €19.20
• Deutschlandticket: valid on S-Bahn and regional trains, not on the ICE

One thing for this autumn: until the timetable change on 13 December 2026 the right-bank Rhine line is being rebuilt, and the airport lines keep seeing overnight part-cancellations with replacement buses – on the S19, RE6 and RB26 among others. If you land after midnight, check the journey planner shortly beforehand.

To Bonn: the SB60 express bus, on borrowed time

The obvious way to Bonn is the SB60 express bus run by Stadtwerke Bonn. It goes non-stop from the airport to Bonn Hauptbahnhof, every 30 minutes according to the operator, taking about 27 minutes out to the airport and about 32 back into town. Because Bonn’s Nordbrücke has been closed to buses over 7.5 tonnes since February 2026, the SB60 currently detours via the Kennedybrücke; the extra Monday trips were dropped when the school year started on 2 September 2026.

The fare is put together unusually. Between Bonn and the airport you need a fare level 2 ticket (€5.50) plus the SB60 supplement (€5.00) – €10.50 in all. Children pay €2.50 plus €2.50. Ticket machines sell both as a single ticket at the same price. With a Deutschlandticket, Stadtwerke Bonn waives the express-bus supplement entirely, so you ride at no extra cost.

Now the borrowed time. In July 2026 Bonn’s council adopted its updated local transport plan, under which the SB60 is to be withdrawn once the pre-launch service of the new S13 starts in December 2026, linking the airport via Troisdorf with Bonn-Beuel and Bonn-Vilich. The city’s condition: at least a half-hourly service to the airport has to be guaranteed. In practice, the SB60 runs as normal until the timetable change; after that, getting from central Bonn to the airport will probably mean crossing to the right bank of the Rhine and changing. Don’t plan a mid-December flight around the old bus without checking first.

There’s a rail option today too, just a clumsier one: S19 or RE6 to Cologne Hauptbahnhof and change for Bonn, or one of the through RB26 trains that runs from the airport via Cologne to Bonn Hbf. In the MittelrheinBahn’s most recently published annual timetable that journey takes around 47 minutes – nearly twice as long as the bus. On the plus side, a fare level 2 ticket without the supplement does it, so €5.50.

Taxi to Cologne: just over €50

At the airport, Taxi Ruf Köln cabs wait in their own lanes outside both terminals. Because the airport is in Cologne, the Cologne taxi tariff applies: since 1 June 2026, a €4.90 base fare and €2.90 per kilometre, with no taper and no airport surcharge. To the Hauptbahnhof, 16 to 18 kilometres, that’s €51.30 to €57.10; from 1 March 2027, with a €5.00 base fare and €3.00 a kilometre, €53 to €59. Everything about the city tariff, waiting time and the large-vehicle supplement is in Cologne taxi fares – this piece sticks to the airport routes.

Against a €4 single ticket, a taxi into Cologne is a luxury choice. It wins when your address is well away from a station – Rodenkirchen, Lindenthal or out in the Bergisches Land – when you’d rather not change at the Hauptbahnhof with small children and luggage, or when a night-time rail replacement is running.

Taxi to Bonn: the Cologne tariff all the way

Cologne’s regulated taxi area explicitly includes the city of Bonn. A cab from the airport can’t simply name its own price – it runs on the Cologne meter right into central Bonn. For the 25 to 27 road kilometres to Bonn Hauptbahnhof:

• until February 2027: €4.90 + 25 to 27 × €2.90 = €77.40 to €83.20
• from March 2027: €5.00 + 25 to 27 × €3.00 = €80 to €86

Add a few kilometres for Bad Godesberg. To size up where you’re heading in Bonn, road distances and drive times from Bonn give you a quick read.

The reverse direction is where it gets interesting. Get into a Bonn taxi in Bonn and the Bonn tariff applies, which the city council rewrote on 11 June 2026: a €4.90 base fare, a flat €2.50 per kilometre on weekdays from 6am to 10pm, €2.65 at night and on Sundays and holidays, and €33 an hour waiting. According to the city it takes effect four weeks after publication in the official gazette. Over 25 to 27 kilometres that’s €67.40 to €72.40 by day – about ten euros less than the other way round in a Cologne cab. Whether the airport run still falls under Bonn’s regulated fare I couldn’t establish from the published material, so ask before you set off whether the meter will run. And be wary of online fare calculators: at least one still shows much higher figures for Bonn that don’t match the council’s decision.

Booked fixed prices and Uber at the kerb

Book a Cologne taxi by phone or app with a fixed start and destination and the dispatcher may quote a fixed price up to 20 per cent below or above the meter. For the Bonn run at around €80 on the meter, that corridor spans roughly €64 to €96. A quote in the bottom third is a genuine saving on the meter; one at the top only pays off if you’re dreading a Friday afternoon on the A59. What else to watch for with pre-booked transfers, from waiting time after a delay to cancellation terms, is in booking an airport transfer.

Uber has its own pick-up lane between the two terminals at CGN. Cologne tried to impose minimum fares on such private-hire rides from June 2026, but the Cologne administrative court suspended the rule in urgent proceedings on 24 July 2026; the city’s appeal is with the higher administrative court. App fares therefore have no floor at the moment – though at busy times they can sit well above the meter. How Uber builds its prices is covered in Uber prices in Germany.

Three sums for two cities

Solo to Cologne: €4.00 by train against just over €51 by taxi. Nothing to think about.

Four people to Cologne: the 24-hour ticket for five costs €19.20 and then covers the whole city for 24 hours. The taxi comes to €51 to €57, or €13 to €14 a head. For around €35 extra you get door to door – a fair deal if your address is off the rail network.

To Bonn, alone or as a pair: SB60 at €10.50 each, free with a Deutschlandticket. The taxi is around €80. Two people pay €21 against €80, four pay €42 against €80 – only from four people with luggage does the taxi become a serious option, not least because your Bonn address is rarely right at the station.

My rule of thumb for CGN: to Cologne always the train, unless your address is well off the rails; to Bonn the SB60 until mid-December, then wait and see how the S13 performs day to day.

Onward trains, parking and departures

CGN is one of the few German airports with its own ICE stop on a high-speed line – much like Frankfurt, where the long-distance station beside Terminal 1 connects whole regions without a detour through the city. If you’re coming from the Ruhr or the Lower Rhine, it’s worth weighing up the neighbour too: what getting to Düsseldorf costs is in Düsseldorf airport transfer.

If you’re driving, set parking charges at Cologne Bonn Airport against two taxi rides: for a short solo trip from Bonn, parking rarely beats two SB60 fares, but for a week away with four people from the surrounding area it can tip the other way. And once you’re thinking about the terminal itself, knowing how departures work at Cologne Bonn, from check-in in Terminal 1 or 2 to security, will save you more stress than any transfer choice.

All in all, Cologne Bonn is an airport with two very different answers. For Cologne it comes down almost entirely to whether your address is on the rail network, because no taxi beats four euros. For Bonn the taxi at around €80 is real money and the bus a bargain – for as long as it runs. All prices as of 2026.