converting traditional airfields into multi-faceted facilities and shopping malls with runways, in the last decade airports tout for more than only people willing to leave the city by airplane. They are competing for prospective customers. As a result of these tendencies, the European airline and airport market is facing emerging competition. The question to be asked under this continuous cost pressure is not whether to react or not on the circumstances. Every single airport shall ask how to deal with that rat race and what its competitive advantage is. The competition between the recently renamed Dusseldorf Airport (DUS) and Cologne/Bonn Airport (CGN) is exemplary in this situation and is perfectly illustrating the new competitive situation. Separated by only 50 kilometers air-line distance, it can be assumed that both airports are in a race for supremacy in the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region since many years. The key question to be answered in this context is: Do both airports really compete and if, what are the business segments they are struggling for? How can the airports react on present developments and might they even benefit from a kind of cooperation? This paper is