“Surprising turn”
Frankfurt-Hahn Airport is insolvent – flight operations should continue
Freight planes stand on the apron of the former American military airport Hahn in the Hunsrück, which is used civilly today. Flughafen Frankfurt-Hahn GmbH files for bankruptcy.
© Thomas Frey / Picture Alliance
Flughafen Frankfurt-Hahn GmbH has filed for bankruptcy. Most recently, the airport had to accept declines in passenger numbers – even before the corona pandemic.
Frankfurt-Hahn Airport in Rhineland-Palatinate has slipped into insolvency – according to the preliminary insolvency administrator, operations should continue to run in full. He now wants to get an overview of the current situation of the airport on site and “explore the possibilities for the restructuring of the company”, explained restructuring expert Jan Markus Plathner from the law firm Brinkmann & Partner, who was appointed preliminary insolvency administrator by the responsible district court in Bad Kreuznach .
Local court opens insolvency petition proceedings for Frankfurt-Hahn Airport
The district court opened a bankruptcy filing for the airport on Tuesday, which is majority owned by the Chinese HNA Airport Group. The state of Hesse also holds shares in the airport, which recorded 1.5 million passengers before the Corona crisis in 2019 and is also an important freight base thanks to a 24-hour operating permit. According to the airport, more than 170,000 tons of freight were handled there in 2019.
Plathner said on Tuesday evening that the next step would now be to “initially pay out the wages and salaries of the employees at short notice via pre-financing for insolvency payments”. According to the preliminary insolvency administrator, it is important for all travelers and freight forwarders that the Frankfurt-Hahn airport continues to operate “in full”. The air traffic takes place “as planned by the airlines,” he said. Passengers with specific questions should contact their airline directly.
Former US military airfield
The result was the airport on which a passenger plane operated by the Irish low-cost airline Ryanair landed for the first time in April 1999 and, according to the airport, heralded an era of “low-cost flying” on a former US military airfield. It used to be controlled by the majority of Rhineland-Palatinate. In 2017, the state transferred its 82.5 percent stake to the Chinese HNA Airport Group, the remaining 17.5 percent are owned by the State of Hesse.
A spokeswoman for the Hesse Ministry of Finance announced that the state is currently examining the specific effects of filing for bankruptcy. Hessen still holds 17.5 percent and is thus a minority shareholder in Flughafen Frankfurt Hahn GmbH.
Requirement for a social plan
The aviation policy spokesman for the CDU parliamentary group in the Hessian state parliament, Heiko Kasseckert, declared that the airport’s bankruptcy came “as a surprise”. Most recently, the company thought it was “supposedly on the up” due to the increased freight business. The state government will now “work for a quick and effective solution to the succession plan in the interests of the employees”.
The chairman and financial policy spokesman for the left-wing parliamentary group in the Hessian state parliament, Jan Schalauske, called on the state of Hesse to intervene in the bankruptcy proceedings for the 300 employees at the airport. “What is needed is a social plan that offers those affected security and a perspective,” explained Schalauske. He also called for a future concept for the airport. The concept of regional airports is not ecologically justifiable and economically unsustainable.
The general secretary of the Rhineland-Palatinate CDU, Jan Zimmer, described the bankruptcy of the airport as the “temporary, sad climax of a completely screwed-up airport policy of the state government” under Prime Minister Malu Dreyer (SPD). The Rhineland-Palatinate state government ignored the airport’s difficulties for too long. “Ms. Dreyer’s policy is costing our country millions of euros in taxpayers’ money and giving the citizens job opportunities,” criticized Zimmer.