Two months ago, we noted that British Airways (BA) had set aside $700 million in anticipation of fines from the U.S. Department of Justice on the heels of price-fixing and illegal collusion investigations (as well as to pay for editing to James Bond movies).

Now the price has come in and BA and Korean Air Lines have both agreed to plead guilty to price fixing and to pay $300 million apiece for conspiring to fix the prices of passenger and cargo flights.

BA was also separately was fined a record $250 million in Britain after admitting collusion over fuel surcharges on tickets.

Virgin Atlantic was the airline which blew the whistle last year on BA’s collusionary habits – and thereby escaped punishment.

Commentary: Believe it or not, this penalty in some ways is a relief to British Airways, as it could have been fined up to 10% of revenues (as opposed to just 1%, as this fine represents).

That being said, British Airways is not out of the woods yet. Next up for sure will be a class-action lawsuit, probably filed in the U.S. (at least initially) by passengers looking for trebled damages.