German airline apologizes for excluding Jewish passengers

German airline Lufthansa has apologised for refusing to let a large group of orthodox Jewish passengers board a flight after some of them had refused to wear masks.

In a statement late Tuesday, Lufthansa said that it "regrets the circumstances surrounding the decision to exclude the affected passengers from the flight, for which Lufthansa sincerely apologizes." The airline said it was reviewing what had happened during the incident on May 4, involving passengers from New York transiting in Frankfurt for a flight to Budapest.

Some of the passengers had allegedly refused to comply with rules requiring them to wear face masks, whereupon Lufthansa staff blocked all passengers who visibly belonged to the group from boarding their connecting flight, German daily Frankfurter Allgemeiner Zeitung reported.

"We regret that the large group was denied boarding rather than limiting it to the non-compliant guests," the airline said.

"We have zero tolerance for racism, antisemitism, and discrimination of any type," it added.

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