Lufthansa has issued an apology for its treatment of many Jewish passengers who were denied boarding not on the basis of their behavior, but on the basis of their appearance.
Lufthansa Apologizes To Jewish Passengers Denied Boarding To Budapest
I outlined the issue in detail yesterday, but in short:
- A number of Orthodox Jewish passengers refused to wear masks or refrain from congregating in the galleys on a New York to Frankfurt flight
- Many were connecting to Budapest as part of a religious pilgrimage
- Rather than singling out the mask offenders, nearly all passengers who appeared Jewish were denied boarding on who were connected to Budapest
- A Lufthansa gate agent remarked, “Everyone has to pay for a couple”
- It appeared the decision to deny boarding en masse was made by the Captain of the FRA-BUD flight
> Read More: Did Lufthansa Really Discriminate Against Jews?
Lufthansa initially issued a cautionary statement saying it was investigating the incident. That investigation continues, but Lufthansa has issued an additional statement today about what happened, including an apology:
On May 4, a large number of booked passengers were denied boarding on their onward flight with LH 1334 from Frankfurt to Budapest. Lufthansa regrets the circumstances surrounding the decision to exclude the affected passengers from the flight, for which Lufthansa sincerely apologizes.
While Lufthansa is still reviewing the facts and circumstances of that day, we regret that the large group was denied boarding rather than limiting it to the non-compliant guests.
We apologize to all the passengers unable to travel on this flight, not only for the inconvenience, but also for the offense caused and personal impact.
Lufthansa and its employees stand behind the goal of connecting people and cultures worldwide. Diversity and equal opportunity are core values for our company and our corporate culture. What transpired is not consistent with Lufthansa’s policies or values. We have zero tolerance for racism, anti-Semitism and discrimination of any type.
We will be engaging with the affected passengers to better understand their concerns and openly discuss how we may improve our customer service.
Even with this lawsuit, passengers who were denied boarding are already banding together to launch a class action lawsuit for the discriminatory treatment. Of note, Lufthansa refers to the Jewish travelers as a “large group” when in fact they were not a group…many booked from the same travel agent and many shared a common religious and ethnic identity, but the idea that the Jewish passengers were traveling together appears factually inaccurate.
I do see a great opportunity for learning here. Germans are culturally so rules-oriented (it is not just a cliche) and flouting rules does not go over well. While it takes some work to identify passengers who are non-compliant instead of assigning blame to the entire group, such work is necessary to avoid not only bad optics (particularly in Germany), but a fundamental miscarriage of justice. A broad dragnet did indeed ensure a quiet flight from Frankfurt to Budapest without disruptions. But it also unfairly punished passengers who did nothing wrong. The ends do not always justify the means.
CONCLUSION
Lufthansa has issued a real apology (not just an “I’m sorry if you are offended” statement) and has refuted the idea that it tolerates unfair discrimination against any passenger on the basis of their religious or ethnicity. Even so, the investigation continues. My question from yesterday remains: how widespread were the mask violations? Whatever the answer does not justify punishing the innocent for the transgressions of the guilty, but it would help to understand how egregious the situation was onboard LH401 from JFK-FRA.
Note that they did not apologize for singling out Jewish passengers and that they were actively denying them from boarding any Lufthansa flights for 24 hours.
Given the history,of Germany , Statement was wishy washy and unacceptable from a German airline
ANd the use of German police was egregious.
Good marketing strategy. Jews have the money. No point antagonizing them.
So many genocides in the world but the jews marketed theirs the best so we end up talking the most about it.
You are a sick f***
My son is an already an embarrassment to the family and I apologize for his drunken keyboard-warrior behavior as I have raised him in a spoiled manner.
Hey Toolbag- If my keyboard had a middle finger key, It would come your way.
It’s true though. Have to give credit to the jews. Ever playing the victims even though most are doing well in life. Or maybe it’s because the victims were all white? But the victims were mostly ashkenazi eastern European jews, and in the pecking order of whites, the eastern European whites are second class. So it’s weird why we still talk about it. Holdomor does not get talked about as much, because the victims were Ukrainian whites, so second class amongst whites, not to say anything about the rawanda genocide or the khmer rouge genocide or even Yemeni or Afghani kids dying of malnutrition. No one talks about those, because the victims aren’t even whites. I can only think it’s because of all the american and western European jews that have marketed this genocide well.
And all those perceived slights and charges of anti semitism put everyone on defensive. You are very good at playing the victiim card and I am admiring your marketing prowess.
Son, you are an utter embarrassment to the family. I did not raise you this way- to be this anti-semite political extremist. You apologize for your words.
@Matthew and the community, I’m truly sorry for this embarrassment.
Not only that, but LH also banned Jews collectively from traveling on LH for 24 hours. Egregious, and this non-apology makes things worse.
https://www.dansdeals.com/points-travel/airlines/airline-news/lufthansas-apology-takes-things-bad-worse-9-things-remain-unaddressed-media-needs-get-story-right/
Unfortunately, it seems to be the case for many european airliners where they would discriminate against a certain group and give a non-apology. It reminds me of the KLM incident when they basically discriminated against Koreans right before covid blew up in February 2020.
It’s really sad that these companies don’t have the balls to own up to their actions.
Whatever this is, it isn’t a real apology. Where do they directly say they are sorry to the people denied boarding for looking like people who didn’t wear masks correctly? Where do they say they were wrong? Where do they say they will make amends? And where do they say they will at least try not to do it again?
Instead we get distancing phrases and passive voice. “Regret the circumstances surrounding the decision” doesn’t mean they regret the decision. “We regret that the large group was denied boarding” passively ignores that Lufthansa did the denying. And the continued use of “group” by Germans to refer to Jews is pretty stupid especially when they work for an airline with a deeply troubling past.
Perhaps the German language version is an apology but this version sure isn’t.
Lufthansa clearly could’ve handled this more smoothly but I think describing those connecting to Budapest as a group is fine. They were travelling for a common purpose which is enough. If 50 fans of a sports team booked separately onto a flight to their team’s away day and then caused an incident they’d be called a group without a blink.
Richard, Not to put your intelligence down, but your comment is so insensitive. You are saying if 50 white people were on a plane going from JFK to LAX and because of their color they are grouped and denied boarding.
P.S. your are forgetting the facts that Lufthansa is a German airline, that was first started Nazis, and most of the people there traveling from Germany to Budapest were grandkids and kids of holocaust survivors. Shame on you.
I think the airline’s apology is making this worse. What do they mean by a “large group”? Everyone on the plane who happened to be Jewish? They weren’t all traveling together, and they didn’t all know each other. I would give Lufthansa far more credit if they addressed the anti-semitism among their staff.
Apparently the staff who made this decision were only able to identify the visibly Jewish passengers, so they relied on a couple of kapos at the gate to make sure that no Jews slipped through.
This is not an apology whatsoever. It’s simply pandering to the bad PR they have been getting. LH can and should do better than that.
Sick Bast***!
Matthew, I think you read the so called “apology” too quickly. This is actually a really insulting non-apology. I am not one to make a big deal of anti-Semitism, as unfortunately, it is way too common and accepted. But this type of institutionalized anti-Semitism is over the top.
Dan did a very good job of breaking down the issues of this statement: https://www.dansdeals.com/points-travel/airlines/airline-news/lufthansas-apology-takes-things-bad-worse-9-things-remain-unaddressed-media-needs-get-story-right/
I’m in agreement with Dan. This apology has far too many issues with it to be accepted as being a real indicator of contrition and regret. Frankly I think they are just trying to make the PR mess go away rather than owning up to any mistakes.
That “review of facts and circumstances” might fly if this was all done by low level employees at the gate. But the decision to issue a blanket 24 hour travel ban for this many people had to come from much, much higher up the corporate ladder. That it was applied to a bunch of Jews on a German airline over mask compliance should have triggered a lot of red flags.
I’m still not sure that LH actually thinks they did anything wrong.
This story will blow over soon, PR wise, in a few days, once a bigger story comes along.
The lawsuit(s), on the other hand…
The lawsuits will likely be thrown out. The Montreal/ Warsaw Convention limits lawsuit against airlines. In the US SCOTUS has ruled that because of language in the treaty, personal lawsuit not allowed. Only government lawsuits are allowed.
Very poor behavior…
Forever playing thee race card…if you let those who want to avoid policy and do what they want to do then you open up a bees nest to all other policies like smoking , disruption etc. Wear the mask…don’t block the aisle OBEY the rules. Shame on the apology.
I agree with the statement that expanding the flight BAN to those not wearing masks was not right. The bigger issue is that if the company has a mask policy, people must follow it. If they don’t want to wear masks, don’t fly an airline that mandates them. Those passengers should have known the rules ahead of time!
Lufthansa really made a big mistake here. They should not have sold tickets to anyone of this group.