THE FBI has raided British Airways’ New York offices in connection with the transatlantic price-fixing investigation into the airline and its rival, Virgin Atlantic.

The agents are understood to have arrived unannounced on June 13, the same day officials from the Office of Fair Trading called at BA’s Heathrow head office.

The OFT is conducting a joint investigation with America’s Department of Justice (DOJ) into allegations of price fixing related to fuel surcharges on long-haul flights.

The probe did not become public until Thursday, when BA told the stock exchange it was under investigation. It sent two senior staff on leave — Martin George, the commercial director, and Iain Burns, head of communications.

It emerged yesterday the probe was triggered by a tip-off from Virgin. Airline industry sources said BA executives felt they had been “stitched up”. By informing the OFT, Virgin is likely to escape prosecution.

BA and Virgin’s fuel surcharges have risen in tandem over the past two years. BA introduced a £2.50 one-way surcharge in May 2004. Both airlines now charge £35 one way on long-haul flights. The charges were blamed on soaring fuel costs.

Virgin may have been prompted to blow the whistle by another investigation. The European commission and DOJ began an examination last year of airline surcharges on cargo, raiding several carriers on both sides of the Atlantic. BA and Virgin declined to comment yesterday.

The affair has reopened the wounds left by the “dirty tricks” affair of the 1990s. Virgin accused BA of using unfair tactics to poach passengers and won £610,000 after a libel trial.

In recent years relations between the companies have thawed. Sir Rod Eddington, the former BA chief executive, became close to Sir Richard Branson, Virgin’s chairman. A former BA director, who asked not to be named, said of Virgin: “It looks like they have seen an opportunity to kill two birds with one stone — avoid prosecution, and get one over the old enemy.”

On Friday an American law firm, Cohen, Milstein, Hausfeld and Toll, filed a class-action lawsuit against BA and Virgin.

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