WASHINGTON (AP) – The Justice Department is giving Britain’s largest airline a break, even as it faces one the largest antitrust fines in years.
Representatives of British Airways PLC are scheduled to plead guilty Today to two counts of conspiracy and face a likely fine of $300 million for colluding with rival Virgin Atlantic over fuel surcharges on international flights.

Federal prosecutors, in court documents filed last week, said the fines could have been as high as nearly $900 million if not for the airline’s cooperation in the investigation.

“As a foreign corporation with headquarters outside America, BA could have retained highly relevant documents in its foreign offices and refused to cooperate,” prosecutors wrote. “It chose, however, to assist America early in its investigation in a highly significant and useful way.”

Earlier this month, authorities in London and Washington announced nearly $550 million in combined fines for the airline as part of parallel trans-Atlantic investigations.

Britain’s Office of Fair Trading fined the company $246 million and a federal judge is expected to sign off on the $300 million American fine today.

As part of its plea deal, British Airways is admitting that between mid-2004 and early 2006, it colluded with Virgin Atlantic over the surcharges, which were added to fares in response to rising oil prices. Virgin Atlantic is not named in the Justice Department case and is not expected to face a fine in Britain because it reported the misconduct to authorities.

Between 2004 and 2006, fuel surcharges rose from about $10 to about $120 per ticket for a round-trip long-haul flight on BA or Virgin.

The $300 million in criminal fines were the second-largest antitrust sanction by the Justice Department since 1995. The largest antitrust fine, $500 million, was against vitamin giant F. Hoffman-La Roche in 1999 in a price-fixing case.