German airline Lufthansa will pay the United States government a $US4 million ($5.9 million) penalty for its treatment of a group of Jewish passengers in May 2022.
The US Department of Transport alleges Lufthansa discriminated against 128 Jewish passengers who were trying to board a connecting flight in Frankfurt, during a journey from New York to Budapest.
All members of the group were denied boarding, based on the alleged misbehaviour of some passengers.
The department said most were wearing "distinctive garb typically worn by Orthodox Jewish men".
Some said crew members had told them on the first flight about the requirement to wear a face mask and not to gather in aisles or near emergency exits, but the flight attendants in question did not identify any passengers who failed to obey their instructions.
Although many of the passengers did not know each other or were not travelling together, passengers interviewed by department investigators stated that Lufthansa treated them as if they were a single group and denied all of them boarding for the alleged misbehaviour of a few.
The fine is the largest issued by the department against an airline for civil-rights violations, although Lufthansa was given credit for $US2 million for compensation it already gave the passengers, cutting the fine in half.
"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," Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said.
Lufthansa did not admit to any violations under the consent order and it denied that any of its employees discriminated against passengers.
It contended as many as 60 passengers onboard at any given time were disregarding crew instructions.
The airline said it regretted and has publicly apologised on numerous occasions for the circumstances surrounding the decision to deny boarding, arguing the incident "resulted from an unfortunate series of inaccurate communications, misinterpretations, and misjudgments throughout the decision-making process".
Lufthansa said in a statement on Tuesday that since the 2022 incident, it has fully cooperated with the department and remains focused on many efforts including partnering with American Jewish Committee to curate "a first-of-its kind training program in the airline industry for our managers and employees to address anti-Semitism and discrimination".
Reuters/AP