Apparently Northwest Airlines’ plea agreement over price fixing charges was just approved by a federal judge late last week. Due to this, the airline is now required to play at least $38 million in fines due to the price fixing charges. Although this is not the first time an airline has been fined for price fixing, it does show that governments are not prepared to tolerate it today anymore than they did years ago.

Prosecutors said that Northwest Airlines Cargo had conspired to fix air cargo rates in the United States, as well as overseas, back in July of 2004. Apparently the time in question falls between July of 2004 till February 2006. During this time, Northwest Airlines Cargo earned more than $80 million from air cargo services between the United States and Japan, according to the Justice Department.

The plea agreement is part of a Justice Department investigation of price fixing in global air cargo shipments. This little investigation has netted more than $1.6 billion in fines so far.

United States judge, John D. Bates, said that the company has accepted responsibility fully for their actions. He went on to add that the company has shown a great deal of responsibility.

Northwest Airlines is now part of Delta Air Lines. The cargo division of Northwest Airlines is not even operational anymore. Thus, this is one charge that Northwest will never have to deal with again. However, government officials want this to be a leason to other airlines in the United States. They want them to know that if they are price fixing, they will catch them, and they will have to pay a heavy fine. This is for the well being of the public and consumers that use their service.