WASHINGTON — The German airline Lufthansa has been penalized $4 million by the United States for its handling of a group of Jewish travelers who were denied boarding a flight in Frankfurt in 2022 after arriving from New York.

The U.S. Transportation Department announced this hefty fine on Tuesday, noting that it represents the largest financial penalty imposed against an airline for civil rights infractions. However, Lufthansa received a reduction of $2 million from the total fine due to compensation already offered to the affected passengers.

According to the department, most of the 128 passengers denied boarding were dressed in the traditional attire associated with Orthodox Jewish men. While many of these individuals were not acquaintances and were not part of a group, they reported to investigators that Lufthansa treated them as a collective and barred them from the flight based on the alleged misconduct of a few individuals.

These travelers were part of a larger group of 131 individuals traveling from New York via Frankfurt to Budapest for a memorial event honoring an Orthodox rabbi. Witnesses mentioned that during the initial flight, flight attendants communicated the necessity of wearing face masks and the prohibition against congregating in aisles or near emergency exits. Despite these directives, the Lufthansa crew did not point out any specific passengers who may have disregarded the rules; the airline attributed this to the volume of infractions and the fact that many passengers had swapped seats during the flight.

The situation escalated when the flight captain alerted Lufthansa’s security teams regarding disruptive behavior among travelers, which ultimately contributed to the decision to deny boarding for the connecting flight, as cited in the consent order related to the case.

While Lufthansa firmly denied any claims suggesting discrimination, asserting that no staff acted out of prejudice, the airline did acknowledge shortcomings in its procedures and communication.

In 2022, Lufthansa reached a settlement with the majority of the affected passengers.