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BONN, Germany — Canadian plans to set up a logistics hub at the German Köln Bonn Airport, announced by Canadian Defense Minister Peter MacKay during a Feb. 14 visit to Ottawa by his German counterpart, Thomas de Maizière, have been rejected.
A spokesman confirmed that a delegation of the Canadian Air Force did recently visit the airport, which currently serves them as an alternate aerodrome, to check its infrastructure.
“With respect to the additional noise exposure, especially during the night times, we reject these plans,” Michael Garvens, the chairman of the board of the Flughafen Köln Bonn GmbH, said in a press statement. “A relocation of night flights from the less densely populated Eifel into the Cologne-Bonn metropolitan area cannot be conveyed to the region.”
Currently, the Canadian military uses the U.S. Air Base Spangdahlem in the less densely populated Eifel region of the southwestern German state Rhineland-Palatinate. The civil Köln Bonn Airport is situated close to Cologne in a metropolitan area with about 2 million inhabitants.
The city of Cologne itself also opposes the Canadian plans.
“The airport of a major city is not the right location for additional military air traffic,” Lord Mayor Jürghen Roters said. He demanded instead a noise reduction, especially at night.
Köln Bonn is one of the major German passenger and freight airports. It serves as a logistics hub for civil carriers UPS and FedEx. It also encompasses a German Air Force air base, which jointly uses its airfield for troop transports, medevac, logistic and VIP flights.
The main advantage of the Köln Bonn airport is an unrestricted night flying license until 2030.
“It does not fit into our efforts to keep the noise exposure of the residents as low as possible,” Garvens said regarding possible additional Canadian military flights. “Having said this, we will approach the Canadian Armed Forces and the Federal Defense Ministry.”
When asked, a spokesman of the German Defense Ministry said that on the one hand, a relocation of the Canadian logistics hub to the Köln Bonn airport would be welcomed and supported by his agency. But settlement of the contract details is the responsibility of the Canadians alone, he said.
At their current garrison in Spangdahlem, the Canadian Air Force remains more than welcome. “We would be happy if they would stay,” said Rudolf Becker, leader of the responsible association of municipalities.
