Investigation of air-cargo industry

Acting on a decision by the EU Commission, an unannounced inspection was carried out today at a number of air-cargo carriers in Europe, including SAS Cargo in Copenhagen. According to the Commission, the background is that it wants to investigate whether any form of prohibited cooperation has occurred in the air-cargo industry for the purpose of restricting competition.

According to the EU Commission, cooperation has involved routes within Europe as well as to countries outside the European Union. The alleged competition limiting cooperation has supposedly been carried out since 2000 and mainly involved agreements regarding certain surcharges to offset external cost increases, such as fuel surcharges, costs for additional security measures (after the attack in the US in September 2001) and surcharges for war-risk insurance premiums (applied in conjunction with the outbreak of war in Iraq in 2003).

Currently, SAS Cargo sees no reason to suspect any violations.

Group Management at SAS views any form of competition violation very seriously and will ensure open and full cooperation with the EU Commission to determine if SAS Cargo has had any involvement in this context.

For further information, please contact
Hans Ollongren, Senior Vice President, SAS Group, +46 8 797 1950
Kenneth Marx, President & CEO, SAS Cargo Group A/S, +45 323 24748

SAS Group Corporate Communications