Four current and former British Airways executives were charged on Thursday in connection with an inquiry into fuel surcharge price fixing, the UK's Office of Fair Trading said.

The OFT named the four as Martin George, BA's former commercial director, Andrew Crawley, its current head of sales, Iain Burns, its former head of corporate communications and Alan Burnett, ex-head of UK and Ireland sales.

If convicted, the four could receive prison sentences of up to five years, as well as an unlimited fine.

Law firm Peters & Peters, which is acting for Burns, said the former communications chief hoped the case would lead to his name being cleared.

"At the time of these events, Iain Burns was the head of PR at British Airways with no responsibility for pricing decisions," Michael O'Kane of Peters & Peters said in a statement.

"Given his very high level of cooperation with the OFT, Iain is naturally disappointed with their decision, however he hopes it will allow this case to be fully analyzed before a court and finally provide him with the opportunity to clear his name."

A BA spokesman said Andrew Crawley remains an employee of the airline, but declined to comment further.

Last year BA admitted colluding with Virgin Atlantic between August 2004 and January 2006 over surcharges that were added to ticket prices in response to rising oil prices, and paid a fine of GBP121.5 million pounds (USD$237.1 million), the biggest ever imposed by the OFT for a breach of competition law.

Virgin Atlantic, which had reported the price-fixing to the OFT, was granted immunity under the watchdog's policy of protecting whistleblowers.

The OFT, the UK's consumer watchdog, said the four were accused of having "dishonestly agreed with others to make or implement arrangements which directly or indirectly fixed the price for the supply in the United Kingdom of passenger air transport services by British Airways and Virgin Atlantic Airways."