Air New Zealand embroiled in cartel allegations

AIR NEW ZEALAND   EMIRATES SKY CARGO   CARGO PRICE FIXING

New Zealand - Air New Zealand has been implicated in a case brought forward by Australian regulators against Emirates Airline in a global air freight price fixing scandal.

Letters, emails and telephone conversations between Air New Zealand and Emirates managers will be used as evidence, The Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) reported.

Emirates has been slapped with the price fixing charge in the Federal Court, by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), a consumer watchdog.

According SMH, Norm Thompson, deputy CEO of Air New Zealand and Ram Menen, cargo executive at Emirates allegedly first spoke in October 2003 about freight prices they intended to charge between Australia and New Zealand.

Menen gave Thompson, then Air New Zealand's sales and marketing chief, assurances that Emirates would not undercut Air New Zealand's or Qantas's freight prices.

Thompson responded to Menen saying that despite the guarantee, Emirates was undercutting Air NZ, court documents showed.

"After your comments on Emirate SkyCargo's selling approach, I was interested to hear from our cargo sales people that we lost some of our consolidation cargo from the Brisbane to Auckland service last weekend to Emirates at, what we are told, rates far more attractive than Air New Zealand's," Thompson wrote.

SMH reported Menen later assured Air New Zealand it was not undercutting them, and that Emirates's local cargo managers had been told to contact Qantas and Air New Zealand's local managers to agree rates.

The ACCC has yet to take action against Air New Zealand, but in the airline has since denied any wrongdoing.

The Commerce Commission alleged that airlines globally, including Air New Zealand, operated a cartel to inflate freighting cargo rates by imposing fuel and security surcharges for more than seven years. 

________________________________________________________

Managing people? For HR and leadership strategy, Human Resources has it covered.

Get your marketing department up to speed with Asia's most read marketing site
marketing-interactive.com