LONDON (AP) — The prosecution opened its case yesterday against four past or present British Airways executives accused of fixing the price of fuel surcharges with Virgin Atlantic and other airlines.

Richard Lambert, opening the case for the Office of Fair Trading, said three Virgin Airways executives who had blown the whistle on the deal have been granted immunity and would testify for the prosecution.

The defendants are BA sales and marketing director Andrew Crawley, former communications chief Iain Burns, former UK-Ireland sales director Alan Burnett and former commercial director Martin George. The have all pleaded not guilty.

Lambert alleged that the four men made an illegal agreement with Virgin Atlantic executives Paul Moore, William Boulter and Steven Ridgway to set the fuel surcharge between July 1, 2004 and April 20, 2006.

The deal was worth millions to the airlines involved, Lambert said.

"No one complains because no one knew what was going on," he said. "But every single purchaser is a victim." Lambert said the jury might conclude that the BA men were "little more culpable than the prosecution witnesses".

"But if Virgin executives had not admitted their participation in price-fixing with British Airways the illicit activities would almost certainly have remained hidden to this very day."

In 2007, BA was fined £121.5 million by Britain's Office of Fair Trading and $300 million by the U.S. Department of Justice. BA admitted colluding with Virgin Atlantic over the surcharges, which were added to fares in response to rising oil prices.

The following year, British Airways and Virgin agreed to pay about $210 million to settle a lawsuit filed on behalf of 2.1 million people who purchased tickets in the United States during the time the price agreement was in effect.