Coronavirus: Airlift for farmers successfully launched

The "airlift for farmers", which Eurowings launched together with the Lufthansa Group and German farmers' associations to provide ad hoc support to the agricultural sector, has got off to a successful start. Just one week after the activation of a new Eurowings portal for harvest helpers, farmers from all over Germany have already registered more than 30,000 of their seasonal workers who are urgently needed in the fields for harvesting, planting and sowing. Based on this demand, Eurowings makes flights available to agricultural associations and farmers at special rates. The airline provides information about all planned special flights at eurowings.com/erntehelfer. 

Since the start of this "airlift for farmers" on 9 April 2020, Eurowings has flown more than 3,000 harvest helpers from Romania to Berlin, Hamburg, Düsseldorf, Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden, Leipzig, Nuremberg and Frankfurt-Hahn on about 30 flights within one week. Further special flights are planned in the coming days and weeks, more than 100 in total, to provide the best possible help to farmers in a very difficult situation and to secure the supply of fruit and vegetables in Germany. The German government assumes that, as a result of strict entry bans in the wake of the corona crisis, there will be a shortage of around 100,000 harvest workers in Germany by May 2020. For this reason, the government recently granted permission for 40,000 harvest workers to enter Germany by air in April and May. 

Farmers' President Joachim Rukwied is delighted with this joint action by farmers' associations and the Lufthansa Group: "The seasonal workers are still arriving on time, we are relieved. Thanks to this arrangement, our farms will remain able to work. We are glad that the Federal Government has opened this way," Rukwied said on the German local radio station “Bayerischer Rundfunk”.