Four current and former executives of British Airways will go to court next month for fixing the prices of fuel surcharges, which also resulted in airlines occurring record fines, according to an official on Thursday. The United States and British authorities have fined British Airways a total of about 270 million pounds for the offenses already, which took place from August of 2004 to January of 2006. Andrew Crawley, the Head of Sales right now for British Airways; Martin George, the former commercial director; Iain Burns, the former communications head; and Alan Burnett, the former sales chief for Ireland and the United Kingdom may be facing jail time for the charges. Burnett, Burns, and George all resigned from British Airways in 2006.

The major carriers in the world are adding surcharges onto their airfare, blaming it on the soaring kerosene prices, which is the fuel used for powering the aircrafts and is refined from oil. The prices of crude oil jumped to record highs of more than 147 dollars a barrel. However, they have shed about 20% since then due to lower energy demand feared by companies, according to analysts. A spokesman said that all four of the current and former British Airways executives are listed to show up in court on September 24th for a prosecution of the Office of Fair Trading. These 4 men are among 10 present and past British Airways staff of whom have not been given an immunity with a plea agreement for the fixing of prices between the United States Department of Justice and the carrier.

Go to www.britishairways.com to learn more.