Airlines charged with fixing prices

The European Commission has charged several airlines with fixing prices for airfreight services, with British Airways, Lufthansa and SAS saying they were among those affected.

The move announced yesterday follows raids on both sides of the Atlantic in February last year, which also involved the US justice department investigating several US airlines.

The European Union executive body, which is the 27-nation bloc's top anti-trust watchdog, said it had sent official charge sheets, known as statements of objections, to several unidentified airfreight companies.

"The European Commission can confirm that a statement of objections has been sent to a number of companies, concerning their alleged participation in a cartel in the provision of airfreight services, in violation of EU rules on restrictive business practices," the commission said in a statement.

"Sending a statement of objections does not prejudge the final outcome of the procedure," it said.

Cargo receipts are a reliable stream of revenue for passenger airlines, which carry mail and other freight. In response to higher fuel costs last year, airlines had said they would hike fuel surcharges on freight shipments. Germany's Lufthansa, British Airways, Scandinavian airline SAS and Luxembourg's Cargolux all said they had received a statement of objections and were co-operating with the EU executive.

Lufthansa added it had won conditional immunity from fines. "Lufthansa is working very closely together with the cartel authorities in their investigations of the air transport industry," the Lufthansa spokesman said.

In the 2006 raids, American Airlines and United Airlines, both said they had received inquiries as part of the probe.