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E.U. Fines 11 Airlines Over $1 Billion in Cargo Cartel

10 November 2010 08:42 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA-Economics. The European Commission on Tuesday fined 11 airlines and air carriers a total of â‚¬799.5 million for participating in an air cargo cartel, New York Times reported.

The commission handed Air France the highest fine, â‚¬182.9 million, or about $253 million, for its involvement in a cartel that lasted from late 1999 until 2006, and that E.U. officials said raised prices on businesses that shipped goods.

British Airways was told to pay â‚¬104 million. The Scandinavian airline SAS got a penalty of â‚¬70.2 million, which was higher than would have otherwise been the case because it had previously been caught fixing prices in a separate case.

The Dutch carrier KLM received the second-highest fine, â‚¬127.2 million, while Martinair was fined â‚¬29.5 million. That brought the total charge for the Air France-KLM Group to â‚¬339.6 million.

Other airlines that received fines were Air Canada, Cathay Pacific, Cargolux, Japan Airlines, LAN Chile, Singapore Airlines and Qantas.