The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has proposed a USD6,428,000 civil penalty on Lufthansa (LH, Frankfurt International) for operating unauthorised flights into San Diego International and Philadelphia International in 2018 and early 2019.

The US regulator said in a press release that the German carrier operated around 600 flights between San Diego and Frankfurt International using A340-300 aircraft between March 22, 2018, and May 27, 2019. It also flew 292 times between Frankfurt and Philadelphia using B747-400 and A330-300 aircraft between October 28, 2018, and April 10, 2019.

However, the FAA alleged that as neither San Diego nor Philadelphia was listed in Lufthansa's operations specifications at the time, it should not have operated commercial flights to either of the cities.

Lufthansa has been given 30 days from November 27 to appeal the proposed civil penalty.

According to the ch-aviation schedules module, Lufthansa continues to fly to San Diego and Philadelphia 5x weekly each. It is due to increase the frequency of the latter route to daily as of December 5.

The German carrier operates 29 routes to the United States in total, serving 20 cities in the country.