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Frankfurt-Hahn Airport: Fraport Transfers its S...
Frankfurt-Hahn Airport: Fraport Transfers its S....
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[{"type":"text","content":"\n \n\n\n\nFRANKFURT, Germany, February 3 /PRNewswire/ --\n\n - Schulte: \"Fraport Freed From Hahn's Financial Obligations\" - Hering: \n\"Jobs and Further Development Secured\"\n\n\n\n With retroactive effect to January 1, 2009, the State of\nRhineland-Palatinate is taking over all of Fraport AG's shares in Flughafen\nFrankfurt Hahn GmbH (FFHG). With 65 percent, Fraport was the majority\nshareholder in Frankfurt-Hahn Airport in the Hunsrück region until the end of\nlast year; the states of Rhineland-Palatinate and Hesse each held 17.5\npercent of the shares.\n\n\n\n Both sides agreed today on a symbolic purchase price of EUR1.\nThis transaction ends all existing financial obligations of Fraport AG, in\nparticular the obligation of offsetting losses and obligations under existing\nloan agreements of FFHG. Dr. Stefan Schulte, vice chairman of Fraport AG and\nsupervisory board chairman of FFHG, emphasized: \"As a stock-listed group,\ndecisive criteria for Fraport is the earning power of its subsidiaries and\nassociated companies. We cannot afford loss-making operations permanently.\nWithout implementation of our concept presented for Hahn's future, we are\nunable to continue operations at this location. Another decisive reason for\nour pull-out was that we would immediately cease having to bear any further\nlosses; in view of our contract commitments until the year 2024, these would\nhave been a great burden for us.\"\n\n\n\n In order to improve the airport's negative results, Fraport\nhad presented a concept for the future in the past few months. This included\nintroduction of the so-called \"Hahn Taler\", an airport development fee to be\npaid by the passenger to contribute to the further development of Hahn\nAirport in the future. Schulte said that the implementation of the concept\nwas an essential prerequisite for FFHG to make Hahn profitable.\n\n\n\n Hahn's main customer, the Irish carrier Ryanair, had announced\nthat if the airport development fee was introduced it would withdraw a\nconsiderable part of its fleet from Hahn Airport already by the summer\ntimetable and even leave the airport completely later. Rhineland-Palatinate\ntransportation minister Hendrik Hering commented: \"The reaction signalized by\nRyanair would have had disastrous consequences for the region's labor market.\nThis would have jeopardized about 6,00...