Ryanair to add first B737 MAX 200 in 2Q19

Frankfurt Hahn operator declares insolvency

Flughafen Frankfurt-Hahn GmbH, the operator of Frankfurt Hahn airport, has filed for insolvency at the Bad Kreuznach district court, but has since vowed to continue operating for the time being.

Provisional insolvency administrator Markus Plathner told the German news agency dpa that all of the airports' employees would continue to receive wages through insolvency protection funds. The airport will also continue to service passenger and cargo traffic as planned while the administrators investigate its financial situation and draw up a business plan for the future.

The insolvency filing also includes four subsidiary companies: JFH Jet Fuel Hahn GmbH, HNA Airport Services GmbH, HHN Airport Technology GmbH and HHN Aviation Security GmbH.

The airport is 82.5%-owned by China's HNA Group. The conglomerate acquired the stake from the government of Rhineland-Palatinate, the state in which the airport is located, during a global spending spree in 2017. The remaining 17.5% stake is owned by the government of neighbouring Hesse, in which Frankfurt is located. Although Hahn has branded itself as a secondary airport serving Germany's financial centre,...

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Wizz Air "not averse" to mergers and acquisitions - Varadi

Wizz Air Holdings is not averse to potential mergers and acquisitions of other airlines in the future, as long as it maintains strict cost discipline in the process, Chief Executive József Váradi told Bloomberg.

"Given our low-cost business model, we are not a natural consolidator, and it doesn't come to us intuitively, but that's not to say that we won't be looking at opportunities as they arise," he said.

Váradi added that the low-cost carrier had considered 20 potential mergers or acquisitions over the last ten years. He said that despite having no ambitions of building IAG International Airlines Group-like holdings, Wizz Air was "not blind" to market trends, including consolidation.

Although the LCC has not publicly confirmed it, it was widely understood to be behind the recent takeover proposal for easyJet. The British rival rejected the highly conditional and unsolicited offer, deeming it "fundamentally undervalued".

According to the ch-aviation capacities module, Wizz Air Holdings (comprising Wizz Air, Wizz Air UK, and Wizz Air Abu Dhabi) is the...

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