Operating company for Munich connection established
The initiative to continue scheduled flights at Paderborn/Lippstadt Airport, which is unique in Germany, is taking shape. Under the leadership of Christoph Plass, Vice-President of the East Westphalia Chamber of Industry and Commerce in Bielefeld, 36 entrepreneurs and private individuals have joined forces to found skyhub PAD GmbH & Co. KG. The primary focus of this company is to maintain the flight connection between Paderborn/Lippstadt and Munich.
The initiative was launched by the local business community immediately after Lufthansa’s decision to discontinue the Paderborn-Munich route at the end of May 2025. The chairman of the airport supervisory board, District Administrator Christoph Rüther, and local Member of Parliament Dr Carsten Linnemann had suggested an independent regional solution, and Plass and numerous supporters are now taking up the baton.
‘We are transferring a proven product into new structures. The extensive entrepreneurial experience and expertise of those involved, from flight operations and management to communications and marketing, are helping us with this transformation,’ said Plass, highlighting the favourable conditions at skyhub PAD’s first press conference. In the meantime, those responsible have held a wide range of positive discussions and raised sufficient capital in the low seven-figure range for the start-up phase.
‘The establishment of the operating company is a key event that brings us a big step closer to our goal,’ said Plass, together with the founding shareholders. Now it is time to finalise discussions with the airlines and conclude further agreements. skyhub PAD is working with many experts to ensure that a 70-seat turboprop aircraft will fly three times a day from Paderborn/Lippstadt to Munich and back in the summer of 2025. skyhub PAD GmbH & Co. KG is expected to present the detailed plans in the first half of April.
Photo caption
Great excitement at the founding of dsr skyhub PAD GmbH & Co. KG (from left): Steffen Benslips, Robin Stork, Bernd Häger, Daniel Fingerhut, Dr Maurice Eschweiler (DMG MORI European Factories & IT GmbH), Andreas Schmidt (SAMbase GmbH), Prof. Oliver Pott, Dr. Manfred Kesselmeier, Christoph Plass (UNITY AG), Markus Frese (Media.Com GmbH), Dr. Philipp Hoffmann, Tobias Hindermann and Markus Schulte. The other shareholders were unable to attend the first notary appointment.
Press contact:
Matthias Hack
Communications | Press Officer
skyhub PAD GmbH & Co. KG
Mobile 0162/1010724
Email matthias.hack@hack-pr.de
