A dozen major American and European airlines reportedly are offering up to $50 million cash to creditors of bankrupt Laker Airways to settle a billion-dollar antitrust lawsuit, according to United Press International. The news service said lawyers for the airlines, including British Airways, Pan American, TWA, Lufthansa and Swissair, held secret talks in Miami with creditors of the defunct British company, trying to settle the suit filed in 1982 that alleged the airlines conspired to drive the cut-rate trans-Atlantic carrier out of business. A London paper reported Sunday that the airlines, led by British Airways, were offering up to $86 million cash. A settlement of the antitrust suit would remove a major obstacle to the British government`s plan to sell state-run British Airways to the public.
