The district court in Bad Kreuznach granted the airport’s application after it filed for insolvency. Dusseldorf-based M&A consultancy Falkensteg has been commissioned to look for one or more investors for the Frankfurt-Hahn Airport Group or its assets including the property. Investors will have the option to acquire all assets or just single assets.

Falkensteg will search for both German and international potential shareholders while those will have until 20 December to make their interest known.

Frankfurt-Hahn airport, built on a former US military airfield had previously been under ownership of the state of Rhineland-Palatinate. In 2017, the state transferred its 82.5% stake to the Chinese HNA Airport Group, with the remaining 17.5% held by the neighbouring state of Hesse. The Chinese group is now looking to move the asset on.

Before the pandemic, Frankfurt-Hahn was Germany's tenth largest passenger airport: in 2019, 1.5 million passengers passed through the terminal. And more than 170,000 tonnes of freight were handled at the airport in the same year.

Approximately 233,000 tonnes were handled in 2020, landing Frankfurt-Hahn in fourth place in terms of German air cargo, according to a press release by Falkensteg.

The airport had been nicknamed "Ryanair's airport", because the Irish budget airline used it as a hub in its early days. Hahn, just a 90-minute drive from Luxembourg, was popular with passengers from the grand duchy and the greater region, before Luxembourg’s airport in Findel started welcoming budget airlines.