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German firm to buy local airport caught in Russia row

The insolvent Frankfurt Hahn airport is to be sold to a German real estate developer, the company and the airport's administrator said Tuesday, after a dispute over Russian interest in buying the hub.

Frankfurt Hahn airport
The Frankfurt Hahn airport, as pictured in January 2022. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Thomas Frey

The Triwo group, which already operates several other airfields in Germany, will buy Frankfurt Hahn, the companies said.

An offer to buy the airport had previously been made by NR Holding, which owns the nearby Nürburgring race track and is backed by the Russian oligarch Viktor Kharitonin.

READ ALSO: Russian interest in Frankfurt Hahn airport sparks criticism

The German region of Hesse, a minor shareholder in the airport, had been critical of the potential sale.
Kharitonin, who co-founded the pharmaceutical company that produced Russia’s Sputnik Covid-19 vaccine, is not on the European Union’s sanctions list in response to the invasion of Ukraine.

But opposition conservative MP Sebastian Brehm had said the sale to NR Holding would risk “damage to Germany’s foreign and economic policy”.

Triwo’s chief Peter Adrian, who is also president of the Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce (DIHK), said the airport had a “good” future.

His group wants to “make targeted investments in the airport infrastructure, achieve further growth in passenger and cargo traffic and implement sustainable real estate development”, he said.

According to the insolvency administrator, Frankfurt Hahn is now “operating without losses” thanks to reorganisation measures.

While Frankfurt Hahn shares a name with the German financial capital, it is not the city’s main airport.

Almost 90 kilometres to the west of Frankfurt, it serves mainly as a hub for cargo and low-cost airlines.

The airport went under at the end of 2021, in the wake of widespread travel disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

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TRAVEL NEWS

What’s the environmental fee Lufthansa, Austrian and Swiss airlines will charge you?

German airline group Lufthansa, which includes national flyers Austrian and Swiss airlines have said it will add an environmental charge to passenger fares in Europe to cover the cost of increasing EU climate regulations.

What's the environmental fee Lufthansa, Austrian and Swiss airlines will charge you?

How much will the cost be?

The extra cost will be added to all flights sold and operated by the group departing from EU countries as well as Britain, Norway and Switzerland, the group said in a statement.

It will apply to flights from January next year and, depending on the route and fare, will vary from €1 to €72.

What’s the justification for the cost?

“The airline group will not be able to bear the successively increasing additional costs resulting from regulatory requirements in the coming years on its own,” said Lufthansa.

The group — whose airlines include Lufthansa, Eurowings, Austrian, Swiss and Brussels Airlines — said it is facing extra costs from EU regulations related to sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).

The aviation sector is among the toughest to decarbonise and SAF — a biofuel that produces lower carbon emissions than traditional jet fuel  — is seen as a crucial ingredient to hitting emissions targets but is currently more expensive to produce.

In March, Airlines for Europe, which represents the continent’s largest airline groups including Lufthansa, complained that production of the fuel in Europe is minimal and lags far behind projects launched in the United States.

Lufthansa said it also faces extra costs from changes to the EU’s emissions trading system, and other regulatory measures.

The group aims to halve its net carbon emissions by 2030 compared to 2019, and to go carbon neutral by 2050.

What is the EU legislation?

The EU legislation requires airlines to gradually increase use of the fuel on routes departing EU airports.

Carriers will need to include two percent of SAF in their fuel mix from next year, rising to six percent in 2030 and then soaring to 70 percent from 2050.

What’s the sate of Lufthansa group’s finances?

After having to be bailed out by the German government during the coronavirus pandemic, Lufthansa racked up healthy profits in 2022 and 2023 as travel demand roared back.

But it was hard hit by a series of strikes at the start of this year, reporting a hefty first-quarter loss.

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