Price fixing “airlines raided”

The European Commission and its officials have raided the offices of several large well known international airlines as part of investigation into an illegal cartel on long-haul flights.

The Commission did not name which airlines were being investigated, but Lufthansa, KLM and Air France have confirmed they are among the group. A statement by

Germany’s biggest airline Lufthansa confirmed that its offices in Frankfurt had been searched.

Sources at Alitalia quoted by Reuters said that the Italian flag-carrier had also been raided.

Surprise searches happen at an early stage in investigations and do not imply any wrongdoing by the companies.

A statement from the Commission simply confirmed that it had, “carried out unannounced inspections at the premises of a number of international airline passenger carriers”.

It is not clear, how many other airlines are under suspicion.

Lufthansa explained the motive behind the raid on its offices.

“The Commission has information that passenger aviation companies including Lufthansa in Europe and in Japan may have taken part in anti-competitive price fixing and collusive behaviour in traffic between the EU and Japan,” Lufthansa said in a statement.