Lufthansa has been fined a $4 million penalty for refusing to let 128 Jewish passengers board a flight more than two years ago, the U.S. government announced on Tuesday.
The carrier has apologized for the incident in 2022 in which a large group of travelers — most wearing distinctive garb typically worn by Orthodox Jewish men — were blocked from getting on a connecting flight in Frankfurt, Germany. Calling it inconsistent with its policies and values, Lufthansa at the time said it had zero tolerance for “racism, anti-Semitism and discrimination of any type.”
On May 3, 2022, 131 passengers began a journey from New York City to Budapest to attend an annual memorial event for an Orthodox rabbi. Based on “the misconduct of some passengers” on the initial leg to Frankfort, 128 passengers were prohibited from continuing on to Budapest, according to a consent order issued by the DOT.
Despite many of the passengers not knowing one another or traveling together, Lufthansa treated the men as a single group and prevented all of them from boarding for the alleged misbehavior of a few, the U.S. Department of Transportation said.
The penalty is the largest ever issued by the agency against an airline for civil rights violations.
“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,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg stated in the announcement.
Lufthansa did not immediately respond to a request for comment as to the fine.
