The US Department of Transportation imposed this fine on the German airline for refusing boarding to 128 Jewish passengers.
According to the US Department of Transportation, such a heavy sanction has never been imposed on an airline following a civil rights violation. Indeed, Lufthansa, a famous German airline, was fined four million dollars after banning a group of 128 Jewish people dressed in traditional Orthodox outfits from boarding one of its flights in May 2022. This flight, which was traveling to Budapest, Hungary, from New York, was then connecting in Frankfurt, Germany.
This is where some passengers allegedly violated the airline’s mask policy, leading to an inappropriate response from Lufthansa employees. According to the US Department of Transportation, German airline staff treated all Jewish people “as if they were one group and refused them boarding” when it appeared that many passengers did not know each other and were not traveling together.
A necessary mea culpa
This Tuesday, October 15, Lufthansa declared in a press release that it had fully cooperated with the American Department of Transportation since the incident as well as with the American Jewish Committee (AJC): “Through our continued collaboration, we have developed a first-of-its-kind training program in the airline industry for our managers and employees to combat anti-Semitism and discrimination”. For his part, Pete Buttigieg, American Secretary of Transportation, expressed his satisfaction in a press release: “No one should face discrimination when traveling, 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”.
Since the incident, Lufthansa has apologized numerous times and expressed its regrets publicly several times. It also accepted its fine of two million dollars while the American Department of Transport must credit the German company with another two million dollars which must be paid to the passengers concerned as compensation for the discrimination they suffered. .
