Office of Fair Trading launches cartel trial against former BA executives

UK Office of Fair Trading (OFT) launched a trial against three former British Airways executives and one current executive for allegedly scheming with Virgin Atlantic Airways to fix fuel surcharges on trans-Atlantic services (Bloomberg/Daily Mail/Travel Trade Gazette, 26-Apr-2010). The carrier reportedly earned an additional GBP64 million in revenue in one year (2H2004-1H2005) from the action. The defendants deny the cartel offence. No one from Virgin has been charged in the case, as they acted as whistleblowers to the OfT.