It was announced today that Frankfurt-Hahn Airport is finally bankrupt. A group of new managers are being assigned and they will attempt to salvage this to some degree....to sell off again.
The base was ceased in 1991, and turned over to the German government. What I can generally say about the location (about an hour's drive west of Mainz) is that they had a fairly bad winter....every single year. Fog would creep in on various days....black ice was a normal event locally, and snow was something that you had to be used to.
The Germans kept this idea that the runway (one of the longest in Europe) was worth something, and wanted it to become a commercial cargo location. This simply never took off.
The use as a hub for cheap discount airlines? It never worked. I used it on one occasion and considered the whole operation there to be just a step up from some bus terminals in the US.
About a decade ago, they had around 1.5 million passengers to make it through the airport (that was the peak more or less).
Attempted sale to a Chinese group? That failed miserably.
What I suspect will happen? It would make a great location for manufacturing....but no one seems enthusiastic.
3 comments:
Not surprised to hear this. It was a crap location. Biggest mention it gets with many Americans is a retelling of how badly they screwed up booking discount airfare when they realized (upon landing) that they were hell and gone from actual Frankfurt.
A lot of people told them (1990s) that they needed a rail-line that went from Hahn over to the Frankfurt Airport. Best they'd do was some kind of bus line.
I did one single trip via Hahn (to Ireland) and would never repeat it. Parking was ridiculous and it had the look/feel of the Memphis city bus station.
At some point, I will tell the Chinese attempt to buy the airport (probably ought to be written into a hundred-page book).
Last comment: there are probably fifteen regional airports in Germany in this failure mode. Kassel's 200-million 'new' airport is another failure. EU rules mandate only one airport per state that you can pump money into....to save it from failure. Otherwise, there would be thirty-odd airports in Germany operating (half in failure).
Frankfurt is an airport placed back in time, everything there needs to be replaced, seems to me it is stuck in the 1960. I would not shed a tear for this place
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