WASHINGTON: When the airline industry took a nose dive a decade ago, executives at global carriers scrambled to find a quick fix to avoid financial ruin. What they came up with, according to federal prosecutors, was a massive price-fixing scheme among airlines that artificially inflated passenger and cargo fuel surcharges between 2000 and 2006 to make up for lost profits. The airlines' crimes cost US consumers and businesses - mostly international passengers and cargo shippers – hundreds of millions of dollars, prosecutors say. But the airlines caught by the Justice Department have paid a hefty price in the five years since the government's widespread investigation became public. To date, 19 executives have been charged with wrongdoing – four have gone to prison – and 21 airlines have coughed up more than $1.7 billion in fines in one of the largest criminal antitrust investigations in US history. The court cases reveal a complex web of schemes between mostly international carriers willing to fix fees in lockstep with competitors for flights to and from the United States.
