DOT Penalizes Lufthansa $4 Million for Violating The Civil Rights of Jewish Passengers

The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) today announced a $4 million penalty against Lufthansa for discriminating against Jewish passengers who were traveling from New York City through Frankfurt to Budapest in May 2022. Based on the alleged misconduct of some passengers, Lufthansa prohibited 128 Jewish passengers – most of whom wore distinctive garb typically worn by Orthodox Jewish men – from boarding their connecting flight in Germany. Despite many of the passengers not knowing each other nor traveling together, passengers interviewed by DOT investigators stated that Lufthansa treated them all as if they were a single group and denied them boarding for the alleged misbehavior of a few. Today’s penalty is the largest ever issued by DOT 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,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. “From cracking down on long tarmac delays to ensuring passengers are properly refunded, our department has strengthened our enforcement efforts to hold airlines accountable for their treatment of passengers, and we will continue to push the industry to serve passengers with the fairness and dignity they deserve.” 

The Department received over 40 discrimination complaints from Jewish passengers who were ticketed to fly from John F. Kennedy airport in NYC (JFK), with a stop in Frankfurt, Germany (FRA), and an ultimate destination of Budapest, Hungary (BUD) in May 2022. DOT’s investigation into the complaints concluded that Lufthansa prohibited 128 Jewish passengers from completing their travel to Budapest based on the alleged misbehavior of some or a few passengers on the first flight. During the first flight, the captain alerted Lufthansa security that some passengers were failing to follow crew instructions and were connecting to another flight to Budapest, although Lufthansa later failed to identify any one passenger who failed to follow crewmember instructions. 

The alert to security resulted on a hold being placed on over 100 passengers’ tickets with a final destination of BUD, which then prevented passengers from boarding their next scheduled flight at FRA. All of the passengers with a hold placed on their ticket were Jewish. 

Noncompliant individuals were not named, and Lufthansa staff recognized that the refusal to transport the entire group could result in the exclusion of passengers that had complied with crew instructions on LH 401 but concluded it was not practical to address each passenger individually. 

DOT’s Office of Aviation Consumer Protection will continue to vigorously use its authority to ensure all passengers fly free from discrimination. More information on passengers’ rights to fly free of discrimination is here. 

Since the beginning of the Biden-Harris Administration, DOT has taken historic action to improve oversight of the airline industry. Since 2021, DOT has:

• Expanded the Department’s capacity to review air travel service complaints by partnering with a bipartisan group of state attorneys general, which will help hold airlines accountable and protect the rights of the traveling public. Attorneys general who have signed a memorandum of understanding with DOT will be able to access the new complaint system.
• Ensured airline passengers received nearly $4 billion in refunds and reimbursements owed to them – including over $600 million owed to passengers affected by the Southwest Airlines holiday meltdown in 2022.
• Issued over $170 million in penalties against airlines for consumer protection violations since President Biden took office. In comparison, between 1996 and 2020, DOT collectively issued just over $70 million in penalties against airlines for consumer protection violations.