Journey + Leisure Co. CEO Mike Brown reacts to the announcement on The Claman Countdown.
The U.S. Division of Transportation (DOT) issued a $4 million tremendous in opposition to Lufthansa on Tuesday, accusing the Germany-based service of discrimination for prohibiting greater than 100 Jewish passengers from boarding a flight greater than two years in the past.
Based on the consent order from DOT, the incident stems again to Could 2022 when Lufthansa blocked 128 Jewish passengers from boarding a connecting flight in Germany, after “misconduct from some passengers” on the unique flight, which departed from New York.
Passenger plane operated by Deutsche Lufthansa AG at Frankfurt Airport in Frankfurt, Germany, on Thursday, Feb. 1, 2024. (Alex Kraus/Bloomberg through Getty Pictures / Getty Pictures)
The unique flight had 131 passengers who have been all on their method to Budapest, Hungary, for an annual memorial occasion honoring an Orthodox rabbi, and most of them “wore distinctive garb usually worn by Orthodox Jewish males,” in response to the DOT.
The company mentioned it acquired over 40 complaints from Jewish passengers concerned within the incident and that regardless of their widespread vacation spot, many of the passengers didn’t know one another.
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The DOT mentioned it decided Lufthansa discriminated in opposition to the passengers as a result of the airline “handled all of them as in the event that they have been a single group and denied them boarding for the alleged misbehavior of some.”
Passengers stand in line after an IT fault at Germany’s Lufthansa causes large flight delays and disruptions in Frankfurt, Germany, February 15, 2023. (REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach / Reuters Images)
DOT mentioned the $4 million penalty is the biggest it has ever levied in opposition to a service for civil rights violations.
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“Nobody ought to face discrimination after they journey, and right now’s motion sends a transparent message to the airline business that we’re ready to analyze and take motion at any time when passengers’ civil rights are violated,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg mentioned in an announcement asserting the choice.
Pete Buttigieg, US transportation secretary, speaks throughout a information convention forward of the Labor Day vacation weekend at O’Hare Worldwide Airport in Chicago, Illinois, US, on Friday, Sept. 1, 2023. (Taylor Glascock/Bloomberg through Getty Pictures / Getty Pictures)
Lufthansa mentioned in an announcement to FOX Enterprise that it has cooperated absolutely with the DOT’s overview course of, and that “We stay centered on the various efforts which have been initiated together with, partnering with American Jewish Committee (AJC), a extremely revered and globally acknowledged advocacy group and thought chief.”
“Via our ongoing collaboration, we have now curated a first-of-its form coaching program within the airline business for our managers and staff to deal with antisemitism and discrimination,” the assertion mentioned, including, “As the primary airline to undertake the Worldwide Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism, Lufthansa will proceed to foster a considerate dialogue with Jewish communities and organizations world wide.”
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The DOT’s consent order acknowledged that the airline says it “regrets and has publicly apologized on quite a few events for the circumstances surrounding the choice to disclaim boarding to the affected passengers” within the incident, however “denies any suggestion that any of its staff engaged in any type of discrimination.”
Lufthansa additionally acknowledged in its response to the DOT that it “has zero tolerance for any type of non secular or ethnic-based discrimination, together with antisemitism.”
