GERMANY’S flagship airline has been hit with a $4 million penalty over allegations the company discriminated against a group of Jewish passengers.
The US Department of Transportation said Lufthansa denied 128 Jewish passengers from boarding their connecting flight from Frankfurt to Budapest, Hungary, on May 3, 2022.
The passengers, many of whom wore distinctive clothing worn by Orthodox Jewish men, traveled from New York City to Budapest with a connecting flight in Frankfurt.
However, Lufthansa denied the passengers boarding their connecting flight due to alleged misbehavior by a few individuals, the passengers told the USDOT.
The passengers were treated as a single group by the airline despite not knowing each other or traveling together.
At the time, Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt told NBC News that some passengers were accused of violating the airline’s mask policy.
Lipstadt called the airline’s actions “classic antisemitism.”
“Unbelievable. [When] I first heard it, I said, ‘Oh, this must be wrong. Someone must be misreporting this,'” Lipstadt said at the time.
“And then, of course, it turned out to be precisely right – and worse than we even thought.”
US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said the penalty is a clear message to the airline industry about 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,” Buttigieg said.
“From cracking down on long tarmac delays to ensuring passengers are properly refunded, our department has strengthened our enforcement efforts to hold airlines accountable for their treatment of passengers, and we will continue to push the industry to serve passengers with the fairness and dignity they deserve.”
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