Flughafen Frankfurt-Hahn GmbH files for bankruptcy

Shock for employees: the regional Hahn Airport has filed for bankruptcy.

Whirlwind about the main owner in China and fewer passengers - there have been headlines about the airport again and again.

At the same time, its cargo handling has developed positively.

Hahn - After years of turbulence, the only larger airport in Rhineland-Palatinate has filed for bankruptcy despite recent growth in the freight business. Flughafen Frankfurt-Hahn GmbH submitted the application to the Bad Kreuznach District Court, as Hahn's operations manager Christoph Goetzmann announced to the German Press Agency on Tuesday. According to the court, four other affiliated companies have also done this: JFH Jet Fuel Hahn GmbH, HNA Airport Services GmbH, HHN Airport Technology GmbH and HHN Aviation Security GmbH. The district court appointed the restructuring and insolvency expert Jan Markus Plathner from the Frankfurt office of the nationwide law firm Brinkmann & Partner as the preliminary insolvency administrator in all cases.

The Rhineland-Palatinate CDU General Secretary Jan Zimmer spoke of a "shock for the airport staff and the entire region". Operations manager Goetzmann said that machines were still starting up in the Hunsrück for the time being. With a view to business operations, he added: “I'm fighting for continuation.” But now Plathner is at the helm. The Rhineland-Palatinate Ministry of the Interior pointed out that the opening of insolvency proceedings does not automatically mean the cessation of operations, "especially not if the corresponding business is available". The provisional insolvency administrator will “first examine the situation of the insolvent companies and conduct the company's business in accordance with the insolvency regulations”. The "Wirtschaftswoche" had previously reported on it.

The former US military airport Frankfurt-Hahn, whose name of the Main metropolis is a marketing trick in its name, is 82.5 percent owned by the large Chinese group HNA. He had acquired the shares in 2017 for around 15 million euros from the state of Rhineland-Palatinate. Hessen holds the remaining 17.5 percent. Most recently, the arrest of the top management of the financially troubled HNA caused a stir. The Hunsrück airport emphasized at the time that this had no effect on the rooster. It was said at the beginning of October that he was on the right course. The Frankfurt aviation expert Yvonne Ziegler, however, said on Tuesday: "HNA may have given less support to Hahn Airport recently."which burdens the entire financial and real estate market in the Middle Kingdom.

Hahn Airport recently posted growth in its freight business, with the former US military airport benefiting from the boom in online trading and container bottlenecks in the sea business, among other things.

In the passenger business, however, Hahn had to accept declines again and again, even before the Corona travel restrictions in 2020. The regional airport once had up to four million passengers a year, which it is now a long way off.

The top dog in the passenger business on Hahn, the Irish low-cost airline Ryanair, reduced its offer in the Hunsrück and relocated flights to neighboring, larger airports such as Frankfurt am Main and Cologne / Bonn.

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Airport: Arrests of the owner HNA with no effect

The arrest of the top management of the Chinese HNA group has no effect on its Hunsrück airport Hahn, according to the information.

The airport sees itself on the right course.

“We only know that from the newspaper.

That is of no importance to us, ”said Hahn operations manager Christoph Goetzmann of the German press agency.

The news agency Associated Press and other media had reported, citing the group, that the chief executive officer and chairman of the board of directors of HNA had been arrested.

Airport: Arrests of the owner HNA with no effect

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Despite the ongoing corona pandemic, thousands of people started their autumn vacation at the beginning of the school holidays in Hesse.

The Frankfurt airport operator Fraport alone is prepared to handle up to 130,000 air travelers per day.

The ADAC Hessen-Thüringen predicted “significantly more traffic than usual”, especially for the weekend.

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Operations manager Goetzmann emphasized at the beginning of October: "We controlled the tap without subsidies and without short-time work through Corona." In previous years, operating subsidies from the state of Rhineland-Palatinate had flowed. According to their report published in the Federal Gazette, the airport management nevertheless expected a shortfall in 2020. Depending on the course of the pandemic, the plan is "that a positive consolidated annual result can be achieved by 2024," it said. After that, airports are generally no longer allowed to receive state subsidies in accordance with EU law.

The Hahn is not the first German airport that has to go to the bankruptcy court.

The Paderborn and Rostock-Laage locations have survived the insolvency accelerated by Corona, and administrator Alexander Hubl was also optimistic at Lake Constance Airport Friedrichshafen that the pending approval from the EU Commission will bring the self-administration procedure to a happy end.

The small airports simply lack money because the federal and state governments concentrated on the 15 larger airports in Germany in their rescue operation at the beginning of the year.

The small regional airports should be relieved of air traffic control costs with 20 million euros, which will only really have an impact in the coming year and should no longer have helped the Hunsrück location.

The airports as a whole are doing modestly, said the chief executive of the industry association ADV, Ralph Beisel. “The airports made a pre-tax loss of 2.1 billion euros last year and this year it will be 1.5 billion euros.” The pictures of long queues during the summer and autumn holidays conveyed the wrong picture. "Our terminals are still far too empty with passenger numbers around 50 percent compared to the pre-crisis level," said Beisel.

The many regional airports were a horror for environmentalists even before the pandemic.

In a large-scale study, the Federation for the Environment and Nature Conservation (BUND) put the rooster on a list of seven locations that could be dispensed with immediately.

They made little contribution to connectivity, were permanently dependent on subsidies and had declining passenger numbers, was the criticism in the report, which was published in August 2020.

Approval came from the VCD traffic club, the Left and the Greens, among others.

dpa