Four British Airways executives, past and present, could be charged with price-fixing and face up to five years in jail, according to a report last night.

The cartel case is said to be being brought against the four men by the Office of Fair Trading and charges them with collusion with Virgin Atlantic to fix prices of fuel surcharges between 2004 and 2006.

The four men are understood to be Andrew Crawley, BA head of sales; Martin George, former commercial director; Iain Burns, former head of communications; and Alan Burnett, ex head of UK and Ireland sales.

Mr George and Mr Burns resigned from BA in 2006 after admitting that the airline’s own rules had been broken through conversations with its competitor about fuel surcharges.

Mr Burnett retired in March 2006.

The OFT refused to comment. A BA spokesperson said: “BA is unable to comment on a continuing criminal investigation.”

It is only the second cartel case to be brought by the OFT. Earlier this year, three UK businessmen were sentenced to imprisonment for between two and a half to three years for cartel offences.

The 2006 price fixing investigationcase into passenger fuel surcharges, combined with another conspiracy to fix cargo fuel charges, resulted in BA being fined more than $270 million (£135 million).

BA was fined £121.5 million by the OFT and $300 million by the US Department of Justice for colluding with Virgin on the level of fuel surcharges that would be added to their ticket prices. Fuel surcharges are supplements to the standard ticket price and were introduced to cover rising fuel costs. Virgin escaped the fines because it had informed the authorities that the breaches had happened.

The details of the charges being brought against the men are expected to be outlined in the coming weeks, according to the report.

The four men are part of a group of ten past and present staff who have been refused immunity under a plea agreement between the airline and the United States Department of Justice (DoJ) over fixing the price of tickets with rivals. In theory they could face extradition to the US.

In February, after Virgin and BA reached agreement on a class action suit in the US, it was announced that people who flew long-haul with British Airways or Virgin Atlantic between August 11, 2004 and March 23, 2006 would be eligible for a refund.

BA said that about 11 million passengers, including seven million in the UK, were affected by the deal.

At the time the British Airways’ chief executive, Willie Walsh, had hoped that the settlement would give the airline a chance to move on.

“As we have previously said, we absolutely condemn any anti-competitive activity by anybody,” he said.

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