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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.

Published: 4 April 2023 15:49 CEST

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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How can Germany fix its patchy rural transport connections?

Last year, a major survey conducted by city guides publisher Time Out crowned Berlin the city with the best public transport in the world. The extensive bus, tram and train network was praised by 97 percent of Berlin residents, who noted that transport in the German capital tended to be safe, comfortable and reliable.

But for those who travel a short distance out into Brandenburg, Berlin’s rural neighbour, the contrast couldn’t be more striking: trains stop running at 6pm, buses come every 2-3 hours and residents often face a lengthy trek to their nearest bus or train station.

This divide was confirmed in a 2021 study by Deutsche Bahn subsidiary ioki that looked at public transport connections in Germany. Researchers found that while around 27 million people who lived in German cities had very good access to public transport, the 55 million who lived in suburban or rural areas were much more badly served.

READ ALSO: 55 million people in Germany have ‘inadequate public transport’

According to Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP), rural areas are in “urgent need” of solutions to these gaps in public transport.

Speaking to DPA on Tuesday, the FDP politician set out his plans for local ‘transfer hubs’ that he said would encourage more car users to use public transport – even in non-urban areas.

What exactly is a transfer hub?

A ‘transfer hub’ – or Umstiegs-Hub in German – is a place designed for travellers to switch from one mode of transport to another. As an example, Wissing mentioned easily accessible train stations with parking spaces, good bus connections, cycle paths and e-car charging ports where people could easily switch from their car to a quick commute by rail into the nearest city.

“We need more attractive transfer points in rural areas,” the Transport Minister told DPA. “The federal states could consider for themselves which locations in which regions would be best for such transfer hubs. From there, rail connections could then be offered to the metropolitan regions at regular intervals.”

As opposed to taking “coercive” measures to force the switch from car to public transport, a “constructive approach” that considers both modes of transport would take the country further, Wissing said.

“I believe that there is an urgent need in Germany to orientate the structures in rural areas towards more multimodal transport,” he explained. “The convenient flexibility of the car and the efficiency of the railway can be combined if the infrastructure is right.”

READ ALSO: Why (and where) Germans are choosing to go on holiday by car this year

What impact could this have?

With Germany’s transport sector repeatedly missing its climate targets, the ministry needs to find ways to reduce emissions and encourage a more widespread use of sustainable transport.

According to Wissing, this could have a much bigger impact in the countryside than it would in a city like Frankfurt or Berlin, since people in rural areas tend to travel longer distances.

“We can achieve a situation where a commuter travels perhaps 20 or 25 kilometres to a transfer hub instead of 100 kilometres each way to work by car,” said Wissing. “That would be up to 150 kilometres less per day – a huge potential reduction in CO2.”

Bayerischer Oberlandbahn in Warngau

A regional train run by the Bayerischer Oberlandbahn stops near Warngau. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Lennart Preiss

But climate groups and transport companies have been pushing for a much more ambitious approach to expanding public transport in the countryside.

In its six-point plan for delivering good rural public transport, for example, the Association of German Transport Companies (VDV) calls for rail-bus connections that run at least hourly and flexible, on-demand public transport options.

However, Wissing said that a lack of skilled labour and low demand on rural routes would make it difficult to offer the kind of bus and train services VDV is calling for.

“If the bus used to come every three hours and in future it will come every two hours – what kind of improvement would that be? People would stay in their cars,” he said.

READ ALSO: What to know about Deutsche Bahn’s summer service changes

Where does the Deutschlandticket come into this?

According to the VDV, the €49 monthly travel pass, which has been valid for more than a year on local and regional transport throughout Germany, has an average of 11.2 million subscribers per month.

So far, however, it is primarily a ticket that is used in urban regions, with only 21 percent of Deutschlandticket users coming from rural areas.

According to VDV surveys, around 16 percent of Deutschlandticket users have been travelling by car less often since taking out the subscription.

Nevertheless, the shift has not yet materialised to the extent the government hoped for.

Meanwhile, federal and state transport ministers have been discussing an expansion and modernisation pact for local public transport for some time. The federal states are also calling on the federal government to increase the billions in regionalisation funds, which are used to order services from regional public transport companies.

With reporting by DPA

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