Shared cricket matches on Richard Branson’s Oxfordshire estate once marked the formal end of the “dirty tricks” conflicts of the 1990s, but British Airways executives will probably be keeping their distance from Virgin this summer.

BA will pay fines totalling about £270m to the UK Office of Fair Trading and US Department of Justice, after admitting individuals had colluded with Virgin and other airlines to set fuel surcharges on cargo and passenger flights. Virgin Atlantic will probably escape any penalty, having won leniency by tipping off the OFT about price-fixing with its long-standing rival, and going voluntarily to the DoJ.