Lufthansa facing potential $9.4m fine over alleged non-compliant flights

Los Angeles, California, USA - January 19th, 2008: A Lufthansa Airbus A340-300 takes off from Los Angeles International Airport.

German airline Deutsche Lufthansa AG is facing the prospect of a whopping fine for flights that were allegedly non-compliant with America’s Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

The FAA proposed a civil penalty of US$6.4 million against Lufthansa late last month for allegedly conducting almost 900 flights that were not in compliance with federal aviation regulations.

The agency alleges Lufthansa operated the flights into and out of San Diego International and Philadelphia International airports when it knew it lacked FAA authorisation to do so.

“Foreign airlines can only conduct scheduled flights into and out of airports that are listed in their FAA-issued operations specifications, and the FAA alleges neither airport was in Lufthansa’s operations specifications,” the FAA’s statement says.

Lufthansa operated approximately 600 flights with Airbus 340 aircraft from Frankfurt International Airport to San Diego between 22 March 2018 and 27 May 2019.

The airline operated approximately 292 flights with Airbus 330-300 and Boeing 747-400 aircraft from Frankfurt to Philadelphia, and from Philadelphia to Frankfurt, between 28 October 2018 and 10 April 2019.

Lufthansa has 30 days after receiving the FAA’s civil penalty letter to respond to the agency.

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