Lufthansa barred more than 120 Orthodox Jewish men from boarding their connecting flight in May 2022
The US Department of Transportation (DOT) has penalized German national airline Lufthansa $4 million for allegedly discriminating against a group of Jewish passengers.
According to a DOT announcement on Tuesday, the airline prohibited 128 Jewish passengers, many of whom were wearing traditional Orthodox Jewish clothing, from boarding their connecting flight in Germany in May 2022.
DOT stated that it received over 40 discrimination complaints from Jewish passengers who were ticketed to fly from John F. Kennedy Airport in New York to Budapest, Hungary with a stop in Frankfurt, Germany.
The department’s investigation into the complaints concluded that Lufthansa prevented the entire group of Jewish passengers from continuing their travel to Budapest based on alleged misbehavior by a few individuals. Media reports indicate that some individuals had allegedly refused to comply with the airline’s face mask rules.
“Based on the alleged misconduct of some passengers,” the department said, Lufthansa staff “treated them all as if they were a single group and denied them boarding,” despite many of the passengers not knowing each other or traveling together.
Local German media reported at the time that the airline’s staff excluded those passengers who were identifiable as Jews because they were wearing skull caps or had sidelocks. A video of the incident reportedly showed Lufthansa staff telling passengers that “everyone has to pay” for the mistakes of a few.
According to DOT, the fine issued to Lufthansa is the largest ever the agency has levied for “discrimination.”
“No one should face discrimination when they travel, and today’s action sends a clear message to the airline industry that we are prepared to investigate and take action whenever passengers’ civil rights are violated,” US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said.
Lufthansa issued a statement on Tuesday saying that it had fully cooperated with the DOT during its investigation since the incident.
The German carrier apologized for the incident at the time, stating that it had “zero tolerance for racism, antisemitism and discrimination of any type.” The company later said it had reached a settlement with most of the excluded Jewish passengers.