In September 2016, Germania announced that they will not return to the airport for the 2017 summer season leading to the cancellation of all three seasonal services to Antalya, Heraklion and Palma de Mallorca and leaving the airport with barely any scheduled flights. Shortly after, newly founded German leisure charter airline Sundair announced they would base an aircraft at Kassel Airport during the 2017 summer season serving up to 13 weekly flights to destinations around the Mediterranean. The finance minister of Hesse stated that this would be the airport's final chance to establish sustainable operations before being legally downgraded to an airfield due to a lack of consistent commercial services.