Nov 27 2007
Australia’s Qantas Cops to Price Fixing
There is, no doubt, a graduate student somewhere who is working on a paper about airline price fixing. Now he or she has at least one more set of data to analyze thanks to Austrailia’s Qantas.
The AP reports: Qantas sought to eliminate competition by fixing the rates for shipments of cargo to and from the U.S and elsewhere from at least January 2000 through February 2006, according to the charges filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
The story goes on to point out that this case is one of three this year. British Airways and Korean Air Lines each plead guilty to price fixing of both passenger and cargo flights. Each paid $300 million in criminal fines for their actions (not that it means much to companies recording their profits in currencies other than the U.S. Dollar).
The cause for the price fixing? Good old fashioned greed mixed with the increased cost of fuel. The price of fuel is up 44% this year, according to reports. Read our story about it from earlier this month.
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[…] Another rich case study chance for some graduate student some place. Throw it on the pile, next to the airline price-fixing scandals we reported on earlier this week. […]