It now seems that the well known airline, Northwest Airlines, has agreed to plead guilty to conspiring to fixing the prices of air cargo, according to the United States Justice Department. As many people have already heard, Northwest Airlines is now part of Delta Air Lines.

Northwest Airlines agreed to plead guilty to a single felony count of price fixing. Thus, the airline will have to pay a fine of $38 million. A statement from the department said that, as part of the conspiracy, Northwest Airlines Cargo monitored and enforced adherence to the agreed upon rates.

Delta Air Lines said that the price fixing occurred before it purchased Northwest Airlines back in 2008. Northwest Airlines terminated the employment of the people who were believed to be responsible for the conduct in question.

So far sixteen airlines have pleaded guilty or at least agreed to plead guilty in the department’s long running probe into price fixing in air cargo. The airline has paid more than $1.6 billion in criminal fines. Four executives have been sentenced to prison due to this deed.

Antitrust enforcers in the European Union and Australia have also prosecuted air cargo price fixing. Major Airlines caught up in the probe include British Airways and Korean Air Lines.

Overall this was a problem that is now under control. However, it appears that a lot of airlines are going to be charged for taking part in price fixing. Governments all over the world are making a good amount of money off these price fixing fines. However, it is not yet known just how much money has been made off these fines so far.