It follows an incident at Frankfurt Airport earlier this year when more than a hundred people who were visibly Jewish were barred from a flight by airline staff and armed police
November 30, 2022 12:52
Over 100 visibly Jewish people are reportedly being paid $20,000 each by German airline Lufthansa after they were denied boarding at Frankfurt Airport in May this year.
The airline is paying the passengers affected $20,000 (£16,674) in compensation, plus $1,000 (£834) to reimburse them for expenses incurred due to the incident, according to discount travel website Dan's Deals which first reported the story at the time.
After legal and other fees, each passenger is expected to receive $17,400 (£14,506), the site reports.
Lufthansa would not confirm the exact amount when contacted by the JC, saying in a statement: "Although we are not commenting on the details, we can confirm that Lufthansa endeavours to settle the claims with all of the passengers denied boarding on May 4th, 2022."
'Jewish people were the mess, they made the problemss'
— The Jewish Chronicle (@JewishChron) May 9, 2022
An angry passenger confronts @lufthansa staff member after Jewish passengers were banned from a flight on the airline after a dispute over facemasks. pic.twitter.com/XARkJyRqWZ
The date refers to an incident at Frankfurt Airport earlier this year when more than a hundred people who were visibly Jewish were barred from a flight by airline staff and armed police.
The shocking scene at the departure gate came after a small number of Orthodox Jewish passengers on a previous flight from New York to Frankfurt refused to wear face masks, the airline said at the time.
The group was on their way to Budapest on an annual pilgrimage to commemorate a Chasidic rabbi.
In a video that went viral at the time, a member of Lufthansa staff is asked why Jewish passengers were being prevented from boarding the plane due to the actions of a few people.
One passenger asked: “I was wearing a mask the whole time, why am I lumped in with them?”
The airline employee replied: “It was one, everyone has to pay for a couple.”
The shocked passenger then asked: “What do you mean everybody, everybody from that race? Everybody else on the flight went.”
The Lufthansa employee denied that everybody else on the arriving flight from New York was allowed to board the flight, to which the passenger responded: “The non-Jewish people on the flight went. Why are only the Jewish people paying for other people’s crimes?”
The staff member replied: “Because it’s Jews coming from JFK.”
The passenger responded: “Oh, so Jewish people coming from JFK are paying for the crimes of a few people?”
Eventually, the airline employee said: “If you want to do it like this, [it was] Jewish people who were the mess, who made the problems.”
The passenger then asked: “So Jewish people on the plane made a problem, so all Jews are banned from Lufthansa for the day?”
The airline employee replied: “Just for this flight.”
Following the incident that provoked shock and outrage around the world, Lufthansa created a senior management position to tackle antisemitism and discrimination.
It also became the first airline to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, and has worked with the American Jewish Committee to create training programs for staff to identify and respond to antisemitism.
Lufthansa said in a statement following the incident in May that it "regrets the circumstances surrounding the decision to exclude the affected passengers from the flight", and apologised "not only for the inconvenience, but also for the offence caused and personal impact."
READ MORE: Lufthansa to hire antisemitism manager after orthodox passengers barred from flight