(Bloomberg) -- German airline Deutsche Lufthansa AG was fined $4 million by the US Department of Transportation for allegedly discriminating against Jewish passengers who were kicked off a flight, marking the agency’s largest penalty ever against a carrier for civil rights violations.
During the May 2022 incident, Lufthansa staff prohibited 128 Jewish travelers — most wearing traditional Orthodox clothing — from boarding a connecting flight in Germany on a trip from New York to Budapest, the Transportation Department said in a statement Tuesday.
The agency said it received more than 40 discrimination complaints about the incident. Passengers were told they were barred from the flight because of alleged misbehavior by a few on the first leg of the journey, it said.
According to the department, Lufthansa failed to identify any one passenger who failed to follow crew members’ instructions to wear a face mask and to remain seated. The airline, in response to the allegations, said that’s because the infractions were “so numerous” and passengers were changing seats during the flight.
“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 said in the statement.
Lufthansa, in a response included in the consent order issued by the department, said that it “regrets and has publicly apologized on numerous occasions for the circumstances surrounding the decision to deny boarding to the affected passengers,” but the airline denied that any discrimination occurred.
Instead, the incident “resulted from an unfortunate series of inaccurate communications, misinterpretations, and misjudgments throughout the decision-making process,” the airline said.
In an additional statement Tuesday, the carrier said it is “dedicated to being an ambassador of goodwill, tolerance, diversity, and acceptance.”
The enforcement action is the latest in the department’s push to expand protections for travelers, including recent rules requiring automatic refunds for canceled or significantly delayed flights and a probe into airline rewards programs.
©2024 Bloomberg L.P.