diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index 207132f5c80c1bb63b73b7147bc0016bb38b5f84..a8c42b68912e328b58ce780c981f7e30e54a1e04 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -102,7 +102,7 @@ full-deploy-production:
     - ssh -oStrictHostKeyChecking=accept-new airflow@$PRODUCTION_IP "sudo mkdir -p /persistent_data && sudo mount /dev/vdb1 /persistent_data"
     - until ssh -oStrictHostKeyChecking=accept-new airflow@$PRODUCTION_IP ls /finished_cloudinit >/dev/null 2>&1; do sleep 30; done # wait until cloudinit script is complete
     - ssh -oStrictHostKeyChecking=accept-new airflow@$PRODUCTION_IP "sudo service docker restart" # to use the configured docker data path
-    - ssh -oStrictHostKeyChecking=accept-new airflow@$PRODUCTION_IP "sudo /home/airflow/data-logistics-service/scripts/deployment.sh /home/airflow /home/airflow/data-logistics-service $PRODUCTION_DOMAIN $AIRFLOW__SECRETS__BACKEND $AIRFLOW__SECRETS__BACKEND_KWARGS"
+    - ssh -oStrictHostKeyChecking=accept-new airflow@$PRODUCTION_IP "sudo /home/airflow/data-logistics-service/scripts/deployment.sh /home/airflow /home/airflow/data-logistics-service $PRODUCTION_DOMAIN $AIRFLOW__SECRETS__BACKEND $AIRFLOW__SECRETS__BACKEND_KWARGS $AIRFLOW_FERNET_KEY"
     - echo "Done"
 
 # NOTE Light deployment did not perform well when the template/main.html file was changed (in case of the official airflow image being updated)
diff --git a/dockers/docker-compose.yaml b/dockers/docker-compose.yaml
index 8d0fc5824c85a17cad083cb5edb754e49b0ac64a..a9de206505b67aa9aa27108fff50029cb311c4bc 100644
--- a/dockers/docker-compose.yaml
+++ b/dockers/docker-compose.yaml
@@ -52,7 +52,7 @@ x-airflow-common:
     AIRFLOW__CORE__SQL_ALCHEMY_CONN: postgresql+psycopg2://airflow:airflow@postgres/airflow
     AIRFLOW__CELERY__RESULT_BACKEND: db+postgresql://airflow:airflow@postgres/airflow
     AIRFLOW__CELERY__BROKER_URL: redis://:@redis:6379/0
-    AIRFLOW__CORE__FERNET_KEY: ${AIRFLOW_FERNET_KEY:-}
+    AIRFLOW__CORE__FERNET_KEY: ${AIRFLOW__CORE__FERNET_KEY}
     AIRFLOW__CORE__DAGS_ARE_PAUSED_AT_CREATION: 'true'
     AIRFLOW__CORE__LOAD_EXAMPLES: 'false'
     AIRFLOW__API__AUTH_BACKEND: 'airflow.api.auth.backend.basic_auth'
diff --git a/scripts/deployment.sh b/scripts/deployment.sh
index 0af566c7a2e9570c0903d8cda9028495eb88fbe2..98e250409f3c6c041038b9dff69abbd8ee73383d 100755
--- a/scripts/deployment.sh
+++ b/scripts/deployment.sh
@@ -14,10 +14,15 @@ if [ -z ${2+x} ]; then echo "No user input for starting repository location. Def
 if [ -z ${3+x} ]; then export SERVER_DOMAIN=dls.fz-juelich.de; else export SERVER_DOMAIN=$3; fi
 if [ -z ${3+x} ]; then unset AIRFLOW__SECRETS__BACKEND; else export AIRFLOW__SECRETS__BACKEND=$4; fi
 if [ -z ${3+x} ]; then unset AIRFLOW__SECRETS__BACKEND_KWARGS; else export AIRFLOW__SECRETS__BACKEND_KWARGS=$5; fi
+if [ -z ${6+x} ]; then unset AIRFLOW__CORE__FERNET_KEY; else export AIRFLOW__CORE__FERNET_KEY=$6; fi
+
+
 
 echo "DEBUG values: OLD_DIR=$OLD_DIR, ENTRYPOINT_DIR=$ENTRYPOINT and GIT_REPO=$GIT_REPO"
 echo "DEBUG using secrets backend: $AIRFLOW__SECRETS__BACKEND"
 echo "DEBUG backend args length: ${#AIRFLOW__SECRETS__BACKEND_KWARGS}"
+echo "DEBUG fernet key: ${AIRFLOW__CORE__FERNET_KEY}"
+
 
 cd $ENTRYPOINT
 mkdir -p eflows-airflow