A system for cooling an aircraft zone includes a mixing chamber which is connected to an air-conditioning assembly for making cool air available and/or to a recirculated-air conveying device for supplying recirculated air into the mixing chamber. The system further includes an aircraft-side air-distribution system which includes at least one line connecting the mixing chamber to the aircraft zone to be cooled and also at least one line that is connectable to an aircraft-external air-generating assembly in order to route air made available by the aircraft-external air-generating assembly into the aircraft-side air-distribution system.