24.5.2016   

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 134/1

(1)

By letter dated 17 June 2008, the Commission informed Germany of its decision to initiate the procedure provided for in Article 108(2) of the Treaty with regard to the financing of Flughafen Frankfurt Hahn GmbH (‘FFHG’), the operator of Frankfurt Hahn airport, and its financial relations with Ryanair. The formal investigation procedure was registered under the case number SA.21121 (C 29/08).

(2)

By letter of 4 March 2011, Deutsche Lufthansa AG (‘Lufthansa’) provided further information with regard to the ongoing formal investigation procedure in case SA.21121 (C 29/08), alleging new State aid measures in favour of FFHG.

(3)

By letter dated 18 March 2011 the Commission forwarded this submission of Lufthansa to Germany and requested further information on the alleged new State aid measures. By letter dated 5 April 2011, Germany requested an extension of the deadline for providing that information until 15 July 2011. By letter dated 11 April 2011 the Commission granted an extension of the deadline until 18 May 2011 for some of the questions and until 31 May 2011 for the remaining questions. Germany replied by letters dated 19 May 2011 and 23 May 2011.

(4)

However, those replies were incomplete. Therefore, by letter dated 6 June 2011 the Commission sent a reminder pursuant to Article 5(2) of the Council Regulation (EC) No 659/1999 (3). Germany responded by letters dated 14 June 2011 and 16 June 2011.

(5)

By letter dated 13 July 2011 the Commission informed Germany of its decision to initiate the procedure provided for in Article 108(2) of the Treaty with respect to the credit line provided to FFHG by the cash-pool of Land Rhineland-Palatinate, the loan provided by Investitions- und Strukturbank of Land Rhineland-Palatinate (‘ISB’) to FFHG and the guarantee provided by Land Rhineland-Palatinate to FFHG for the ISB loan (‘opening decision’). The formal investigation procedure concerning these aspects was registered under the case number SA.32833 (11/C).

(6)

By letter of 22 July 2011, Germany requested an extension of the deadline for its reply to the opening decision, which was accepted by the Commission on 26 July 2011. The Commission received comments on the opening decision from Germany on 31 August 2011.

(7)

By letter dated 22 December 2011 the Commission requested further information from Germany. By letter of 18 January 2012, Germany requested an extension of the deadline for replying, which was granted by the Commission on the same day. Germany responded to the request for further information dated 22 December 2011 by letter dated 22 February 2012.

(8)

The opening decision was published in the Official Journal of the European Union  (4) on 21 July 2012. The Commission invited interested parties to submit their comments on the measures in question within one month of the publication date.

(9)

By letter dated 4 September 2012, the Commission received one submission from a third party, Land Rhineland-Palatinate. The Commission transmitted that submission to Germany by letter dated 7 September 2012. Germany was given the opportunity to provide comments on the submission of the third party within one month. Germany did not provide any comments.

(10)

By letter dated 10 April 2013 the Commission requested further information from Germany. Germany responded by letter dated 17 June 2013.

(11)

By a letter dated 25 February 2014, the Commission informed Germany of the adoption of the 2014 Aviation Guidelines (5) on 20 February 2014, of the fact that those guidelines would become applicable to the case at hand from the moment of their publication in the Official Journal of the European Union, and gave Germany the opportunity to comment on the guidelines and their application within 20 working days of their publication in the Official Journal.

(12)

The 2014 Aviation Guidelines were published in the Official Journal of the European Union on 4 April 2014. They replaced the 1994 Aviation Guidelines (6) as well as the 2005 Aviation Guidelines (7).

(13)

On 15 April 2014 a notice was published in the Official Journal of the European Union inviting Member States and interested parties to submit comments on the application of the 2014 Aviation Guidelines in this case within one month of their publication date (8). Lufthansa and Transport & Environment submitted observations. By letter dated 21 August 2014 the Commission forwarded those observations to Germany. By letter dated 29 August 2014 Germany informed the Commission that it did not have any observations.

(14)

By letters dated 23 March 2014 and 4 April 2014 the Commission requested further information from Germany. Germany replied by letters dated 17 April 2014, 24 April 2014 and 9 May 2014.

(15)

On 17 June 2014, Germany informed the Commission that it exceptionally accepts that this Decision is adopted in English only.

(16)

Frankfurt Hahn airport is located in Land Rhineland-Palatinate, approximately 120 km west of the city of Frankfurt/Main. Frankfurt Hahn airport was a US military airbase until 1992. Subsequently, it was converted into a civil airport. It holds a 24-hour operating licence.

(17)

Holding Unternehmen Hahn GmbH & Co. KG (Holding Hahn), a public-private partnership between Wayss & Freytag and Land Rhineland-Palatinate, acquired ownership of the infrastructure of Frankfurt Hahn airport from Germany on 1 April 1995. Between 1995 and 1998, this public-private partnership developed the airport with the goal of making it an industrial and commercial area. According to Germany, when the partnership between Wayss & Freytag and Land Rhineland-Palatinate did not turn out to be successful, on 1 January 1998, Flughafen Frankfurt/Main GmbH (Fraport) (*) started getting involved in the project and eventually took over the operation of the airport.

(18)

Fraport purchased 64,90 % of the shares in the operator Flughafen Hahn GmbH & Co. KG Lautzenhausen (FFHG) for the price of […] (9). Payment of part of the purchase price (EUR […]) was due on 31 December 2007, and was subject to certain conditions (10). In August 1999, Fraport acquired 73,37 % of the shares of Holding Hahn and 74,90 % of the shares of its general partner Holding Unternehmen Hahn Verwaltungs GmbH for the price of EUR […]. Thereby Fraport effectively became the new partner of Land Rhineland-Palatine.

(19)

Fraport's focus at Frankfurt Hahn airport was to systematically develop the passenger and cargo business of the airport. In this respect, Fraport was one of the first undertakings to apply a business model which aimed especially at attracting low-cost airlines. On this basis, Fraport undertook to conclude a new profit and loss transfer agreement with Holding Hahn upon conversion of the latter into a German limited liability company (Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung, GmbH). The conversion and the conclusion of that agreement took place on 24 November 2000.

(20)

Subsequently, Holding Hahn and FFHG merged to form Flughafen Hahn GmbH. Land Rhineland-Palatinate held 26,93 % and Fraport 73,07 % of the shares in the new company. In 2001, the two shareholders, Fraport and Land Rhineland-Palatinate, injected fresh capital into FFHG.

(21)

Until 11 June 2001, 100 % of the shares in Fraport were held by public shareholders (11). On 11 June, Fraport was floated on the stock market exchange and 29,71 % of its shares were sold to private shareholders, the remaining 70,29 % of shares remaining with the public shareholders.

(22)

In November 2002, Land Rhineland-Palatinate, Land Hesse, Fraport and FFHG concluded an agreement on the further development of Frankfurt Hahn airport. That agreement provided for a second increase of the registered capital. On that occasion, Land Hesse acceded to FFHG as a third shareholder. Fraport then owned 65 % of the shares and Land Hesse and Land Rhineland-Palatinate held 17,5 % each. This ownership structure remained unchanged until 2009, when Fraport sold all of its shares to Land Rhineland-Palatinate, which has, since then, held a 82,5 % majority share. The remaining 17,5 % are still held by Land Hesse.

(23)

The passenger traffic at Frankfurt-Hahn airport increased from 29 289 in 1998 to 4 million in 2007 and then decreased to 2,7 million in 2013 (see Table 1). The airport is currently served by Ryanair (12), Wizz Air (13) and other airlines. Ryanair's passenger share amounts to approximately [80-100 %].

Table 1

Passenger development at Frankfurt Hahn airport from 1998 to 2013

(24)

Frankfurt-Hahn airport has also experienced a significant growth in air cargo traffic. The air freight at the airport increased from 16 020 tonnes in 1998 to 286 416 tonnes in 2011 and decreased again to 152 503 tonnes in 2013 (see Table 2). The total freight, including freight forwarders, handled at the airport amounted to 446 608 tonnes in 2013.

Table 2

Cargo development at Frankfurt Hahn airport from 1998 to 2010

(25)

The following airports are located in the proximity of Frankfurt Hahn airport:

Figure 1

Passenger traffic development at Frankfurt Main and Frankfurt Hahn airports in 2000-2012