There is no doubt from the ad I posted that you had to have a US passport, it didn't say "or". Read it carefully.
I know there is no doubt in the ad… Read carefully what I said which is “most airlines” and obviously not that airline… Basically, the ad incorporates a linguistic error or rather they list the requirements in two separate paragraphs instead of one like many airlines will do but they too have to follow the law…
I'm not sure when your friends were hired but in the post 9-11 hiring, US passports became very important with some companies, whether noted upfront or an unofficial policy. It wasn't a problem prior to that.
Having gone to numerous HR events in the past (Airinc, OBAP, WAI, etc) I developed friendships with many recruiters at different airlines… Is it possible that some people out there are sexist, racist, biased, etc? You bet you, that exists all over the world and I’m sure those people will use whatever excuse to turn someone down if they don’t like the person’s race, gender, nation of origin, etc, etc…
However to arbitrarily claim that airlines ‘require’ US passports is simply not true… Statistics do not lie and there are numerous non-US passport holders at many different airlines, including many major airlines (and the ones you've mentioned) that have been hired both before and after 9/11.
I can't give you details of my experience with certain applications (to protect the inside sources) but I can assure you it's a factor. Suing would be fruitless, hard to prove and would ruin your name with other pursuits. I heard about somebody who already tried that.
I’m sorry someone turned you down and that you think it was because of you being born outside the US. Maybe that’s exactly what happened, who knows?
However, if that’s the case then it’s about that one person or persons being biased and NOT about some kind of “unofficial airline policy” because that policy does not exist.
As far as a lawsuit being fruitless – I guarantee you that the ACLU fanatics would’ve found a way to make it very “fruitful” if there were grounds for a lawsuit. Additionally you could’ve done it anonymously…
Again, my point is please blame the guilty individuals rather than some kind of orchestrated secret airline policy…