A former executive with Scandinavian airline SAS has agreed to plead guilty to charges of price fixing as part of a US antitrust investigation into the air cargo industry, the Justice Department said on Monday.

Timothy Pfeil, formerly the highest-ranking cargo executive in the United States for SAS Cargo Group, agreed to serve six months in jail for participating in the price-fixing conspiracy, the Justice Department said.

The government charged that Pfeil conspired to fix the rates charged to US and international customers in 2005 and 2006 when he was SAS' area director of sales and marketing for North America.

Pfeil's plea agreement is the latest development in a wide-ranging investigation of the air cargo industry by the Justice Department's antitrust division.

The case has generated a record USD$1.27 billion in fines from air carriers such as British Airways, Korean Air, Air France-KLM, Qantas Airways and Japan Airlines.

SAS pleaded guilty in July and was sentenced to pay a USD$52 million criminal fine in connection with the case.

According to US authorities, the price-fixing conspiracy began as early as 2001 and continued until at least 2006. Fuel surcharges imposed by some of the airlines rose by up to 1,000 percent during the period, far outpacing the rise in fuel costs.