Washington:

US authorities have hit Lufthansa with a record $4 million penalty after finding the airline discriminated against over 100 Jewish travelers by blocking them from boarding a flight in 2022, officials said Tuesday.

The 128 passengers were denied boarding to a connecting flight after a few did not follow instructions, including anti-Covid mask requirements, on a flight from the United States to Germany, US transport authorities said.

The airline did not immediately reply to an AFP request for comment.

The US Department of Transportation said the penalty over the boarding refusal on May 3, 2022 in Frankfurt was the largest it had issued for a civil rights violation.

The travelers — who wore distinctive garments like black hats and jackets — told investigators they were treated as if they were one group even though many weren’t flying together and didn’t know each other.

Lufthansa denied boarding “to everyone for the apparent misbehavior of a few, because they were openly and visibly Jewish,” DOT authorities said in a filing.

The problem began when the captain of the first flight reported to Lufthansa security that some passengers were not following rules, including wearing of face masks during the trip and not standing in groups in aisles or near emergency exits.

DOT authorities received over 40 discrimination complaints from Jewish passengers in this case.

Lufthansa told DOT that it has publicly apologized on numerous occasions for barring the passengers from continuing their trips, but denied any suggestion that any of its employees engaged in any form of discrimination.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

Lufthansa cabin crews have called a two-day strike next week in the German cities of Frankfurt and Munich, the UFO union announced Saturday, days after the airline announced record profits.

“On Thursday, the group announced a record result,” said UFO union leader Joachim Vazquez Buerger.

“The cabin crew have to be able to benefit from this success, and the efforts made during the Coronavirus crisis must be rewarded.”

The strike will cover flights out of Frankfurt on Tuesday and from Munich on Wednesday, with Lufthansa’s subsidiary CityLine also affected.

Lufthansa said later Saturday that around 100,000 travellers would be hit by the stoppages.

“We deeply regret coming to this point and ask passengers… to excuse us for the coming inconveniences,” he said.

On Thursday, Lufthansa reported that 2023 profits doubled on booming demand, with a net profit of 1.67 billion euros ($1.82 billion), substantially higher than a figure of 791 million euros in 2022.

That marked a second straight year of profits for the group — whose carriers include Lufthansa, Eurowings, Austrian, Swiss and Brussels Airlines — after two years of losses due to the pandemic shutdowns.

The company also took the opportunity to warn about the “damaging” impact of a wave of industrial action at the start of this year.

But employee representatives say salaries have not kept pace with the earnings, even as inflation has eroded their spending power, leading to a series of strikes since the beginning of this year.

The latest walkout began last Thursday, with Lufthansa ground staff staging a nationwide two-day strike after a previous walkout in February.

“After 15 rounds of talks without an agreement, we must assume that management wants the situation to worsen, at passengers’ expense,” the UFO’s negotiator Harry Jaeger said late Saturday.

Lufthansa has said it made “a very good offer that notably includes pay increases of at least 10 percent”.

It has proposed a bonus of 3,000 euros ($3,280) for cabin crew members and a pay increase of six percent in August, followed by a 3.25 percent increase a year later.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Berlin:

German airline Lufthansa is cutting flights to Israel on Saturday following a wave of Palestinian attacks, a spokesman told AFP.

“Given the current security situation in Tel Aviv,” Lufthansa will maintain a single flight to Frankfurt but “all other Lufthansa flights to and from Tel Aviv have been cancelled for this Saturday”.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)