BA denies overcharging after fine

British Airways has moved to reassure passengers that they were not overcharged during its period of fixing fuel surcharges with other airlines.

The carrier has today been fined £121.5 million by the Office of Fair Trading for the practice, which was carried out between August 2004 and January 2006 and was disclosed by employees of Virgin Atlantic last year.

During this period, fuel surcharges on long-haul flights rose from about £5 per ticket to £60 on British Airways and Virgin flights.

"I want to reassure our passengers that they were not overcharged. Fuel surcharges are a legitimate way of recovering costs," commented British Airways chief executive Willie Walsh.

"However, this does not in any way excuse the anti-competitive conduct by a very limited number of individuals within British Airways."

The US department of justice is also expected to impose a further fine, to be announced at a later time.

Fuel surcharges are added to ticket prices by airlines to combat the rising cost of oil around the world. They are amended regularly depending on the state of the oil market at the time of review.

Currently, British Airways charges £8 per passenger per domestic and European short-haul flight, £38 for long-haul flights with a duration of under nine hours, and £43 for those longer than nine hours.

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