Lufthansa Fined Record $4M for Alleged 'Discrimination' Against Jewish Passengers

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 New York to Budapest, Hungary with a stop in Frankfurt, Germany.

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.

According to DOT, the fine issued to Lufthansa is the largest ever the agency has levied for "discrimination."

Lufthansa states that the safety and security of flight operations is Lufthansa’s highest priority. Lufthansa asserts that a large number of the passengers on LH 401, who were denied boarding at FRA, repeatedly disregarded crew instructions to wear face masks, which at the time was mandated under German law due to the COVID-19 public health emergency. Lufthansa states that, in addition, passengers were requested to avoid gathering in the aisles, galleys, and near emergency exit doors, as required under safety and security regulations under U.S. and German law. Lufthansa steadfastly maintains that the actions of the crew of LH 401 were taken in the interest of safety and security. Lufthansa states that the crew of LH 401 did not discriminate against any passenger on the basis of perceived religion or ethnicity or manifest any intentional malice or ill intent toward any passenger. Lufthansa notes that certain flight attendants on LH 401 permitted and facilitated praying by small gatherings of passengers during the flight, which the carrier asserts underscores the Lufthansa crew’s lack of any discriminatory feelings or actions toward any of the passengers. Lufthansa states that a large number of passengers (as many as 60 passengers at any given time during the flight) repeatedly disregarded both in-flight public address announcements from the flight deck and in-person crew instructions. Lufthansa stresses that in some cases, passengers not only refused to comply with safety and security requirements, but argued with Lufthansa flight attendants and other passengers who courteously reminded them of the obligation to wear masks. The conduct of those passengers, according to Lufthansa, placed the crew and other passengers of LH 401 in a difficult situation. The passenger misconduct on LH 401, Lufthansa states, also obstructed flight attendants in the Economy Class cabin from providing food and beverage service and inconvenienced other passengers. Lufthansa concludes that the LH 401 flight crew was diligent and professional in addressing this situation.

Lufthansa states that the Captain of Flight LH 401 made three separate special announcements over the public address system during the flight after the flight attendants informed him of the problems that they were experiencing. According to Lufthansa, the Captain instructed the passengers to properly wear their masks during flight, to not congregate or block the aisles, and to not gather in galleys or block emergency exits. Lufthansa also states that, when making these announcements, the Captain advised the passengers that a potential consequence for failing to adhere to the rules and follow crewmember instructions could be the possible exclusion from future transportation, including not being permitted to board a connecting flight.

Lufthansa further states that the crew of LH 401 was unable to identify the specific passengers who engaged in misconduct on the flight because, according to Lufthansa, the infractions were so numerous, the misconduct continued for substantial portions of the flight and at different intervals and the passengers changed seats during the flight. Lufthansa disagrees with the Department’s position that the crew could have reasonably identified the passengers at issue. Lufthansa states that the large number of non-compliant passengers and the fact that many traded seats made it impossible to identify them. In such circumstances, Lufthansa maintains that the crew appropriately prioritized addressing the large-scale passenger misconduct, which jeopardized the safety and security of the flight and obstructed the crew from performing their safety and passenger service duties, rather than attempting to develop a list of individual passengers who were violating regulations.

Lufthansa rejects any allegation by the Department that the events in this matter resulted from any form of discrimination and disputes that any employee involved in the decision at FRA to deny boarding manifested bias against the impacted passengers on the basis of the passenger’s perceived religion or ethnicity, conduct that is strictly prohibited at Lufthansa. Lufthansa states that, although there had been errors in company procedure and communications, it did not conclude that Lufthansa or its employees discriminated on the basis of perceived religion or ethnicity.

[...] Lufthansa is entering into this Consent Order to avoid litigation threatened by the Department, despite Lufthansa’s belief that the Department lacks jurisdiction over events that occurred outside the United States, and despite disagreeing with the Department’s conclusions. [Emphasis added]