The biggest carrier in Europe, the Air France KLM Group, has made an agreement to pay a fine of almost €223 million for criminal acts as they gave a guilty plea for being one of the airlines worldwide to place a fixed rate on air cargo.  The Department of Justice in the United States has found that this fine is the 2nd highest that has ever been ruled by a US court for fixing prices if the federal judge accepts the plea agreement.  Aside from Air France KLM, there are 3 other airlines that have agreed to pay part of the total fine of a little more than €321 million.  Cathay Pacific Airways has agreed to pay around €38.2 million, Scandinavian Airline Systems Cargo Group will pay about €33.1 million, and Martinair Holland, which is another part of KLM, has agreed to give about €26.8 million.

Kevin O’Connor, the Associate Attorney General, said that fixing the prices of cargo Harms America’s people and undermines the US economy.  He noted that people in the US and the hundreds of thousands of businesses depend on the aviation industry to provide all of the products that they sell, buy, and use in everyday life.  The companies admitted to the fact that they were involved in the conspiracy to fix the rates of cargo, surcharges for fuel, and even surcharges for security that they imposed after the terrorist attack on the United States on September 11 in 2001, he also added.  During the course of this conspiracy, fuel surcharges rose up to 1,000%, which were way beyond any of the fuel price increases.

Visit both www.airfrance.com and www.klm.com for more information on these airlines.