British Airways (BA) is refusing to confirm whether three executives have been named in a class action suit, following fines by the UK Office of Fair Trading (OFT) and the US Department of Justice (DoJ).
Several UK media are today (24 August) reporting several BA names in a suit filed by Washington-based Cohen, Milstein, Hausfeld & Toll, as well as two Virgin executives, but the UK airline is remaining tight-lipped.
”We are not going to make any comment on this,” a BA spokesman told ABTN, adding ”as it is an on-going case. We don”t have any information about when we will be able to confirm that as we don”t want to prejudice anything. We can”t comment about individuals in the case.”
BA was fined a record ”121.5m ($246m) by the OFT and yesterday accepted the DoJ”s ruling that it must pay a further $300m in respect of competition law infringement, although this was itself reduced following co-operation from the UK airline.
A statement from BA said: ”The US District Court for the District of Columbia has approved the August 1st plea agreement between British Airways and the Department of Justice (DoJ) on fines of $300m for infringements of competition law in the company's long-haul passenger and cargo businesses.
”The court agreed that the substantial co-operation provided by British Airways to the US government justified a significant reduction in fines which under Sentencing Guidelines ranged from $450m to $900m.”
The issue hinges on collusion between BA and Virgin Atlantic between August, 2004 and January, 2006, when surcharges were added to ticket prices as oil prices steadily rose. During that time, surcharges increased from ”5 to ”60 per ticket for a typical BA or Virgin long-haul return flight.
"As I have previously stated any anti-competitive behaviour is to be condemned at British Airways or at other companies,” said BA chief executive, Willie Walsh. ”It will not be tolerated and we remain vigilant in this respect."
Two senior members of BA, commercial director Martin George, and communications manager Iain Burns, have resigned.
Virgin Atlantic remained unavailable for comment.