Deutsche Lufthansa AG - Order 2024-5-26

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Office of Aviation Consumer Protection has determined that Deutsche Lufthansa AG (Lufthansa) failed to provide timely refunds to passengers for flights to and from the United States that the carrier cancelled or significantly changed in violation of 49 U.S.C. § 41712 (Section 41712) and 14 CFR Part 259. Since March 2020, the Department has received over 2,500 complaints regarding Lufthansa’s handling of refund requests after cancelling or significantly changing consumers’ flights to or from the U.S. The airline has received tens of thousands more complaints, claims, and refund requests from passengers directly. During the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, thousands of the refund requests took longer than a hundred days to process. This order directs Lufthansa to cease and desist from future similar violations of 49 U.S.C. § 41712 and 14 CFR Part 259 and assesses the carrier $1,100,000 in civil penalties.