Airport binds partners to itself

The Hungarian cargo airline Fleetair International Airlines has been operating at Hof-Plauen Airport since 2018. The airline operates a maintenance centre for its aircraft fleet at the airport - and will continue to do so beyond 2025.

The Managing Director of the airport travelled to Budapest in Hungary, where the airline's headquarters are located, for the annual management meeting. "We are delighted to be working with Fleetair International beyond 2025 until at least the end of 2027," says Kaußler happily. The request to extend the contract now was immediately met with positive feedback from Fleetair. "The airport in Hof continues to be an important, central factor in our business operations. In addition to the EASA certification for maintenance operations on site and the now completed conversion to a pure fleet of ATR aircraft, we want to further develop our partnership together and continue successfully as before," says Alexander Timofeev, Managing Director of Fleetair International Airlines. However, a longer-term contract beyond the duration now agreed was not to be expected, Timofeev continues. "Aviation is extremely fast-moving, especially in the air freight sector. Costs, the order situation and freight volumes change almost daily. We can therefore only endeavour to make firm plans for shorter periods of time."

In addition to the primary negotiation objective of an early contract extension, the contractually agreed fees at the airport were also discussed. These will increase moderately. "The cost pressure affects everyone in aviation. The negotiations have shown that we can only benefit from each other if we have room to breathe. We both consider the increase in charges that we have now agreed in the spirit of our excellent partnership to be justifiable," explains Kaußler. The express and small freight sector in particular is currently not as busy as in previous years. It was therefore clear to both sides that a practicable solution had to be found that would give the airline the necessary room for manoeuvre to remain active in the market. On the other hand, the airport company can also be satisfied with the outcome of the negotiations. "We have secured an important customer in the medium term and thus further income for our services," says Kaußler. The current contract runs until the end of 2025, which will now be followed by the newly agreed additional contract period until the end of 2027.