As if lost baggage and price-fixing with Virgin Airways wasn’t enough, yesterday it was also announced that British Airways and Korean Air had been hit with fines related to cargo and passenger price fixing.

The U.S. Justice Department said Wednesday that Korean Air will pay a $300 million fine as part of its guilty plea in the case, while British Airways will have to cough up another $300 million. (This, on top of the $250 million it will have to fork over because of its antics with Virgin Atlantic.)



The fines are the second-largest ever obtained by the Justice Department and are expected to be the first of several stemming from a two-year probe into fuel-related fees that international carriers charged cargo customers and passengers — some as high as $110 per ticket.

Technorati Tags: airlines, British Airways , Korean Air Lines, price-fixing

It’s not been a good week for British Airways. After being fined more than $247 million from U.S. and UK competition regulators for colluding with Virgin Atlantic over long-haul fuel surcharges, British Airways has been hit with figures that show it is the worst performing of all major airlines in Europe for baggage and one of the worst for delays.

According to the Times Online, stats from the Association of European Airlines today reveal that between April and June, nearly half of all BA long-haul flights and more than a third of its short and medium haul flights did not arrive on time.

If that wasn’t bad enough, the luggage stats were even worse.

The airline had the worst baggage stats of any of the airlines in the survey. During the three months, the airline managed to lose 28 bags for every 1000 passengers it flew.

That is easily more than double the figure for any U.S. major airline, and almost double the rates of such European-based competitors as Air France and Lufthansa.

Technorati Tags: British Airways , lost luggage

Just like that. August appears and flight cancellations at Northwest go away.  Well, not totally. But 20 cancellations, which the airline posted Wednesday, is a far cry from hundreds a day.

Amazing how that works.

But the biggest news Wednesday was not that it was a new month with a whole new set of flying hours to work with — it was the news that the airline and its pilots had come to terms on what was described as an agreement that will help end the problems that are at the root of the airline’s cancellation nightmare.

The Air Line Pilots Association said its members would be paid overtime for flying more than 80 hours a month, and flight instructors would receive incentives to train new and returning laid-off pilots. Additionally, pilots on international flights will receive better rest accommodations, under the new agreement.

The latest cancellation total for June and July from the airline now stands at more than 4000 flights.

Doug Steenland, CEO of Northwest acknowledged this week that work rules in the pilots contract led the airline to “stub its toe” during the busy summer travel season.

Nice “warm and fuzzy” way to put it there Doug.

I think it would be a little more accurate to say that management at the airline screwed up. Big time. And whoever it was who actually thought they would get Northwest pilots — who have seen their pay and benefits slashed as part of the airline’s bankruptcy — to “go above and beyond” for the company needs to be strapped to a chair and made to repeat over and over, “I was delusional.”

Ticker: (NYSE:NWA)

Technorati Tags: airline pilots, airlines, cancelled flights, Northwest Airlines