Impairments for travelers
Farmers demonstrate around Frankfurt Airport
February 3, 2024, 11:35 a.m
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Passengers at Frankfurt Airport have to put up with some adversities this week. First the security staff goes on strike, then public transport employees. Today, farmers with their tractors cause difficulties when getting there. And that’s not all.
Hundreds of farmers are demonstrating with a protest drive around Frankfurt Airport against the expiry of tax refunds for agricultural diesel. As a police spokesman said, the farmers went to the airport at around 6 a.m. in the morning. Up to 2,000 tractors were announced, but initially significantly fewer arrived. Early in the morning there were 500 to 600 tractors.
A protest trip around the site was planned. Police expect road closures until the afternoon. The airport operator Fraport asked people to travel to the airport by public transport or to allow more time for the journey by car. There were brief disruptions in the morning, but there was no major chaos, the police said.
The farmers did not choose Frankfurt Airport at random. The protest is no longer just about agricultural diesel, but about fair competition, said several of the participating farmers’ associations. “What applies to aviation must also apply to us farmers: aviation fuel is still not taxed because it would put German aviation at a competitive disadvantage.” Frankfurt Airport and the cargo area symbolize the integration of the German economy and agriculture into global supply chains and markets.
The traffic light coalition has already weakened its austerity plans for agriculture for the 2024 budget. The tax breaks for agricultural diesel should therefore not end all at once, but should be phased out gradually over the next few years. There have been nationwide protests by farmers against this for weeks. Furthermore, the demonstrations are also about, from the farmers’ point of view, requirements that are too strict and excessive bureaucracy.
The next strike is already imminent
Air travelers had to accept some disruptions this week: On Thursday, the Verdi union called on security staff at eleven German airports – including Frankfurt am Main – to stop work. Numerous connections failed. On Friday, local public transport employees went on strike, which made it more difficult to travel to the airport without a car.
And that wasn’t all this week: Passengers of Lufthansa’s subsidiary Discover Airlines have to be prepared for cancellations and delays this Sunday and Monday. The Cockpit Association has called on the pilots to go on strike for this period of two whole days. It is already the third strike after a five-hour warning strike shortly before Christmas and a regular strike lasting a whole day on Friday last week, after the pilots voted in favor of strikes in a strike vote.