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Air New Zealand has an extra month to come up with answers for European investigators looking into a global airline conspiracy to push up freight costs.
The airline yesterday detailed claims against it in information released with its half-year results, but says it has made no financial contingency for any fines if it is found guilty of being part of a cartel.
European Union investigators issued a "statement of objection" to Air New Zealand just after Christmas and had demanded a response by Monday, but the airline's chief executive, Rob Fyfe, said it now had until next month to respond.
"Certainly it's an issue we take very seriously and we're fully co-operating with the authorities in all the jurisdictions that are investigating. It is relatively early days for us in terms of receiving the Europeans' statement of objection, reviewing all that information then providing all our files so they can review those to see if there's any issues of concern to them."
The investigation was launched by the European Union on Valentine's Day 2006 with raids on airline offices and was backed up by the United States Justice Department and other government bodies in Europe, Asia and the New Zealand Commerce Commission.
It is developing into the most far-reaching cartel case and centres on claims airlines collaborated to fix prices, partly attributed to fuel surcharges and security charges after September 2001.
A number of airlines, including British Airways, Korean Air and Qantas, have negotiated plea deals already and have been hit with fines of more than a billion dollars in Europe and the United States.
Qantas has paid a A$61 million ($71 million) fine in the US and last week lifted its contingency provisions for any further fines from A$47 million to A$111 million to pay possible fines.
Two of its staff and four former workers individually face fines or jail in the US after further action there.
Fyfe said his airline was in a different position. "We haven't set any figure aside at this stage, clearly there's an investigation going on - we have been named as a party of interest but there's nothing at this stage that allows us to identify a potential financial cost associated with that investigation."
Asked if there was any concern staff could be individually liable, Fyfe said there were very strong internal protocols against illegal behaviour.
"All our people are aware of their legal responsibilities and I would hope all our employees would have adhered to those protocols. Where people have knowingly breached the law I think it's appropriate that the authorities seek the appropriate remedies."
Besides action by government agencies, Air New Zealand also faces class action brought by a Melbourne law firm and six other airlines.
Maurice Blackburn alleges Qantas, Lufthansa, Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Air New Zealand, JAL and British Airways formed a cartel to fix fuel, security and war-risk surcharges against Australian freight users, who were fleeced an estimated A$200 million over seven years. A principal, Kim Parker, said the release of the Qantas guilty plea late last year in the US meant the firm's clients were able to bring this class action into sharp focus.
She said now some airlines had admitted their roles to government agencies in other cartel cases, it made it more difficult for the remaining carriers still in the gun.
"It makes it difficult for them - the allegation is that they acted in a co-ordinated fashion and if you've got some of the group putting their hands up and saying 'we did' then it's harder for the others to say 'we didn't'."
CONSPIRACY ALLEGED
* Air NZ is defending itself in four cases alleging cargo rate conspiracies.
* About 30 airlines face action centred in Europe, the US and Australia.
* Several other airlines have already paid more than $1 billion in fines.
