NEW YORK (Reuters) — Two Americans have filed a price-fixing lawsuit against four major transatlantic air carriers saying they used fuel surcharges to wrongfully inflate prices. The suit, filed in New York federal court late Friday, charges that British Airways Plc, Virgin Atlantic, AMR Corp.'s American Airlines and UAL Corp.'s United Airlines conspired to fix passenger ticket prices, partly with the use of fuel surcharges.
The two air travelers, Susan Saldana of Newton, Massachusetts, and Ian Reynell of Chicago, Illinois, claim that British Airways added at least six fuel surcharges since May 2004, conspiring with the other airlines to artificially inflate ticket prices.
United Airlines (UAL) and American Airlines (AAL) said they have reached settlements in lawsuits filed in USA courts seeking damages for alleged price-fixing related to air cargo transport, but both carriers claimed no payments will be made. The disclosure comes on the heels of Lufthansa (DLH)/(LUB)'s admission that it agreed to pay $85 million to settle a string of lawsuits filed in USA courts, after the revelation of a multinational probe examining alleged anticompetitive practices in the setting of fuel and security surcharges on air cargo shipments. The results of that investigation have not been revealed, but (AAL) and (UAL) claim they were not targeted. Both carriers declined to give details of the settlements, but said their liability in the civil lawsuits will end with the apparently nonmonetary agreements, which are subject to court approval.