Qantas and BA agree price fixing fines
Australia's Qantas Airways agreed on Tuesday to pay a A$20 million (7.8 million pound) fine for its part in a price fixing case and vowed to help regulators as they probed 30 other airlines over the same issue.
easyJet expects high load factor for GB AirwaysQantas said the fine was part of a settlement with Australia's competition regulator. The agreement still needs approval from Australia's Federal Court, where the local regulator is suing both Qantas and British Airways for alleged price fixing on air freight between 2002 and early 2006.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) said separately on Tuesday that British Airways had also agreed to pay a fine, though it did not disclose the sum.
"Qantas is one of the first airlines to settle its liability in Australia," Qantas Chief Executive Geoff Dixon said in a statement, offering an unreserved apology.
"Since being advised of the allegations in May 2006, Qantas has cooperated fully with investigations by the ACCC and all other relevant antitrust regulators," he added.
Last May, a former Qantas executive accepted an eight-month jail term as part of a plea agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice, which had also secured guilty pleas by British Airways, Japan Airlines and Korean Air Lines.
"The ACCC continues to investigate other airlines, some of which are assisting voluntarily, while others are not," the competition regulator said in its statement.
"The ACCC expects to be able to resolve its investigations with other cooperating airlines shortly."
In April, Japan Airlines pleaded guilty to conspiring to fix air cargo prices and paid a $110 million (70 million pound) fine. British Airways and Korean Air Lines pleaded guilty last year and paid $300 million fines.
In February 2006, U.S. and European officials raided airlines as part of the probe, which centred on the imposition of fuel surcharges in the international air cargo market.
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