A former top cargo executive of Scandinavian airline SAS has agreed to plead guilty and serve six months in prison for a price-fixing scandal that involved nine airlines around the world, the US Justice Department announced Monday, dpa reported.
Timothy Pfeil, who was SAS Cargo Group's top official in the United States, is the second executive to plead guilty in the multi-year price-fixing scheme.
Airlines have agreed to more than 1 billion dollars in total fines after it emerged that the companies held meetings and agreed to charge specific rates on cargo flights to and from the United States between January 2005 and February 2006.
Bruce McCaffrey of Australian airline Qantas Airways Ltd pleaded guilty and agreed to an eight-month prison sentence in May, in connection with the scandal. The airline had been fined 61 million dollars in January.
Air France-KLM was fined 350 million dollars last month in connection with the scandal. British Airways and Korean Air Lines both agreed to 300-million-dollar criminal fines in August 2007. Japan Airlines was fined 110 million dollars earlier this year.
Cathay Pacific Airways and Martinair Holland were fined 60 million dollars and 42 million dollars, respectively.