EU raids airlines in cartel probe

European Commission trust busters raided the offices of several international airlines operating long-haul scheduled flights to Japan yesterday in an investigation into suspected price-fixing.

Germany's Lufthansa and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, the Dutch arm of Air France, both said they were involved in the probe. A source at Italy's Alitalia said it too was raided. British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, Scandinavian airline SAS all said they had not been raided.

Spain's Iberia said its flights to Japan were operated on a code-share basis and it had no information on the investigation.

"Commission officials carried out unannounced inspections at the premises of a number of international airline passenger carriers," the European Union executive said.

Europe's top competition regulator issued the confirmation after Deutsche Lufthansa said it had been searched in a probe into price-fixing on routes between Europe and Japan.

"The Commission has reason to believe that the companies concerned may have violated EC rules on restrictive business practices," the EU statement said.

EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes has made fighting cartels one of her highest priorities and has imposed billions of euros of fines in the last two years.

A Lufthansa statement said: "According to information from the investigation decision, 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."

A KLM spokesman said the airline was a subject of the cartel investigation and was cooperating fully with the authorities. A spokesman for Air France declined to comment.