German airline penalized for ‘discriminating’ against Jewish passengers

Lufthansa barred more than 120 Orthodox Jewish men from boarding their connecting flight in May 2022

The US Department of Transportation (DOT) has announced a $4 million penalty against German national airline Lufthansa for allegedly discriminating against a group of Jewish passengers. 

According to a DOT statement on Tuesday, the airline prohibited 128 Jewish passengers, most of them wearing traditional Orthodox Jewish clothing, from boarding their connecting flight in Germany in May 2022.

DOT said it had received over 40 discrimination complaints from Jewish passengers who were ticketed to fly from John F. Kennedy Airport in NYC, with a stop in Frankfurt, Germany, and an ultimate destination of Budapest, Hungary.

The department’s investigation into the complaints concluded that Lufthansa prohibited the whole group of Jewish passengers from completing their travel to Budapest on the basis of alleged misbehavior by a few of them. According to media reports, some individuals had allegedly refused to comply with the airline’s rules requiring them to wear face masks.

“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 recognizable 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.

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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 said in a statement on Tuesday that since the incident it had fully cooperated with the DOT as the latter conducted its investigation.

The German carrier apologized for the incident at the time, saying 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.