Status: October 19, 2021 4:04 p.m.
After the main owner, the Chinese conglomerate HNA, had to file for bankruptcy at the beginning of the year, Hahn Airport is now also insolvent.
Frankfurt-Hahn Airport in Rhineland-Palatinate has filed for bankruptcy. This was announced by the Bad Kreuznach District Court today. The Frankfurt attorney Jan Markus Plathner was appointed provisional insolvency administrator. The insolvency proceedings are unlikely to have any impact on the flights to and from the regional airport, which is mainly served by the low-cost airline Ryanair. According to the airport’s website, almost all of the take-offs and landings scheduled for today will take place.
Hahn Airport is 82.5 percent owned by the Chinese HNA group. The state of Hesse holds 17.5 percent. The conglomerate HNA, which in addition to the airport in Hunsrück also owned airlines, banks and hotels, had to file for bankruptcy in January. The global tourism revenue that collapsed due to Corona added to the previously ailing group. HNA was no longer able to repay debts due. At the time, the management at Hahn Airport assured that nothing would change in operations.
Up to four million passengers
Most recently, the arrest of the top management of the HNA group made new headlines at the beginning of the month. At that time, too, it was said that this had no effect on the Hunsrück airport. “We only know that from the newspaper. That is of no importance to us,” said Hahn operations manager Christoph Goetzmann to the dpa news agency.
Frankfurt-Hahn Airport is 130 kilometers from Frankfurt am Main. In 2019 before the Corona crisis, the airport counted 1.5 million passengers. Once it was up to four million a year, but Rynair gradually reduced its offer and relocated flights to other airports.
In April 1999 the first passenger plane landed in Hahn – from Ryanair. This “historic date” heralded a new era of air travel for the whole of Germany: that of low-cost airlines, according to the airport. Most recently, 30 holiday destinations were flown to from Frankfurt-Hahn. The airport had a 24-hour operating permit; it was therefore also an important freight base. In 2019, over 170,000 tons of freight were handled there.
Again and again speculation
Hahn operations manager Goetzmann emphasized at the beginning of October that he had steered the airport through the corona pandemic without aid and without short-time work. According to their report published in the Federal Gazette, the airport management nonetheless expected a shortfall in 2020. Depending on the course of the pandemic, plans are “that by 2024 a positive consolidated annual result can be achieved,” it said.
Originally there was a former US military airfield on the site. It used to be controlled by the majority of Rhineland-Palatinate. In 2017, the country sold its shares to the Chinese HNA Airport Group for around 15 million euros.
No more subsidies allowed
Over the past few months, there has been repeated speculation about the future of Hahn Airport. In July, for example, a creditor filed for insolvency at the Bad Kreuznach district court, but then withdrew it. The high debts of the main owner HNA were considered to be a possible background. The Bad Kreuznach District Court did not want to say who the creditor was.
A legal dispute over taxpayers’ money in the millions for Frankfurt-Hahn Airport was decided this summer. After that, airports are generally no longer allowed to receive state subsidies in accordance with EU law. A legal dispute over taxpayers’ money in the millions for Frankfurt-Hahn Airport was decided this summer. At the time, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) rejected a complaint by Lufthansa. The ECJ confirms a previous judgment. The dispute concerned state aid since 1997 for the Hunsrück airport and contracts with Ryanair on airport charges.