Read more about the article Kuwait Airways: New German Appellate Decision Allows Discrimination Against Israelis
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Kuwait Airways: New German Appellate Decision Allows Discrimination Against Israelis

Friend of Letters Blogatory Peter Bert has pointed me to a new decision from the Oberlandesgericht München in the Kuwait Airways affair. The airline, Kuwait’s flag carrier, refuses to carry Israeli passengers because of Kuwait’s discriminatory anti-Israeli boycott law. As I noted several years ago, the airline dropped its New York to London route rather than comply with US law on nondiscrimination by air carriers. (more…)

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Read more about the article Kuwait Airways Case: An Update From Germany
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Kuwait Airways Case: An Update From Germany

I’ve written a bunch about the Kuwait Airways litigation. The airline had refused to carry Israeli nationals. In the US case, which was an administrative proceeding before the Department of Transportation, the airline refused to carry an Israeli from New York to London. The airline shamefully dropped the route rather than obey an administrative order requiring it to comply with US antidiscrimination laws. In the UK case, the airline settled a case brought by an Israeli refused passage from London to Bangkok. And most recently, a German appellate court rejected a claim by an Israeli refused passage from Frankfurt to Bangkok via Kuwait City. (more…)

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Read more about the article Kuwait Airlines Case: German Court Affirms Judgment Against Israeli Passenger
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Kuwait Airlines Case: German Court Affirms Judgment Against Israeli Passenger

The Higher Regional Court of Frankfurt has affirmed a lower court decision rejecting a claim by an Israeli citizen who resided in Germany and who was forbidden to buy a ticket from Frankfurt to Bangkok via Kuwait City on Kuwait Airways.
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Read more about the article Kuwait Airlines Case: Airline Settles Discrimination Case In London
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Kuwait Airlines Case: Airline Settles Discrimination Case In London

I’ve written several times about the Kuwait Airlines case, which over time has sprouted several cases. In the US case, the airline, citing Kuwaiti law (which forbids it to do business with Israelis), refused to carry an Israeli passenger from New York to London. The dispute was crystallized as an administrative dispute—the Department of Transportation determined that application of the Kuwaiti law to a passenger seeking to fly from New York to London was illegal under US law. Rather than complying with the law, the airline dropped its New York/London route altogether. It sought review of the administrative decision in the DC Circuit, but the petition was made moot by the decision to drop the service. I don’t know whether the aggrieved Israeli passenger brought a civil lawsuit in the United States, and if so, what’s its status.

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Read more about the article Kuwait Airways Case: German Court Allows Airline To Refuse To Sell Ticket To Israeli
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Kuwait Airways Case: German Court Allows Airline To Refuse To Sell Ticket To Israeli

You may recall the Kuwait Airways case, which I’ve written about several times: the airline refused to sell a ticket to an Israeli traveler flying from New York to London on the grounds that Kuwaiti law prohibited the carrier from doing business with Israelis. After some hemming and hawing, the Department of Transportation finally took the view that this was unreasonable discrimination, and thus forbidden by 49 U.S.C. § 41310(a), even though the DOT, curiously, did not assert a violation of 49 U.S.C. § 40127(a), which bars discrimination on the basis of “race, color, national origin, religion, sex, or ancestry.” The airline sought review, but the case was rendered moot when the airline shamefully decided to drop service between New York and London rather than face having to do business with Israeli travelers.

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Kuwait Airways Case: Results of FOIA Request

A coda to the Kuwait Airways case. This, recall, is the case of the airline that refused to sell a ticket to a passenger traveling on an Israeli passport, citing the Kuwaiti law that forbade doing business with Israelis. After some hemming and hawing, the Department of Transportation made it clear to the airline that such discrimination was unlawful, and the airline stopped providing service from New York to London (as I understand it, the airline still flies from New York to Kuwait City, and that seems okay to me, as an airline shouldn’t be compelled to transport passengers who will be refused entry on arrival in another country, as Israelis would be in Kuwait).
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Update on the Kuwait Airways Case

I’ve written a few times about the Kuwait Airways case. This is the case in which the airline refused to transport a passenger from New York to London because he was traveling on an Israeli passport. The airline cited Kuwaiti law forbidding it to transport the passenger. The Department of Transportation, after some initial hemming and hawing, finally did the right thing and determined that the airline had violated US law governing nondiscrimination by air carriers. The airline sought review in the DC Circuit. I encourage you to read my prior posts to get up to speed.

The airline’s appeal was recently dismissed. (more…)

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Kuwait Airways Petitions DC Circuit For Review

In my last post on the Kuwait Airways case, I noted that I hadn’t been able to find the airline’s “countersuit” against the Department of Transportation. “Countersuit” is, of course, the wrong word, but in fact the airline has petitioned the DC Circuit to review the DOT’s administrative decision. Eldad Gatt, the Israeli national who was refused service by the airline, has moved for leave to intervene.
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Kuwait Airways Shamefully Drops New York-London Route To Avoid Serving Israelis

Back in October, I reported that Kuwait Airways, which operates flights between New York and London, was refusing to sell tickets to customers with Israeli passports, citing Kuwaiti law, which forbids doing business with Israelis. After first ignoring the complaint of an Israeli traveler, Eldad Gatt, the Department of Transportation eventually did the right thing, determining that the airline’s policy violated US law, which prohibits unreasonable discrimination. Since then, the airline petitioned for review, but the Department rejected its petition and instructed the airline to cease and desist from further violations of the law.
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Case of the Day: In re Kuwait Airways Co.

The case of the day is the Department of Transportation’s investigation of Kuwait Airways Company. The DOT undertook the investigation at the request of Eldad Gatt, an Israeli national who was seeking to travel from New York to London by air. Kuwait Airways (which according to Gatt was offering the lowest fare on the day he tried to travel) refused to sell him a ticket because he was traveling on an Israeli passport. Gatt asserted that the airline discriminated against him on the basis of national origin, in violation of 49 U.S.C. § 40127(a), which provides:

An air carrier or foreign air carrier may not subject a person in air transportation to discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, or ancestry.

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