Europe's top court should reject an appeal by Air France KLM and its Dutch unit KLM, British Airways, Singapore Airlines and some of their peers against cartel fines imposed by EU antitrust regulators in 2017, an adviser to the court said on Thursday. The EC seven years ago reissued fines totalling E776m to 11 airlines for taking part in a cartel to fix air cargo prices, after the Luxembourg-based General Court scrapped its first decision levied in 2010 due to a procedural error. The carriers took their grievance back to the lower tribunal which threw out their challenges in 2022, prompting them to appeal to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). The court's judges should dismiss their appeals, CJEU Advocate General Athanasios Rantos said in a non-binding opinion, as he sided with the EU competition enforcer. He said SAS' appeal for a cut in its fine should be referred back to the General Court to be reviewed. The CJEU, which usually follows the majority of such recommendations, will rule in the coming months. Air France-KLM's fine was the highest at E182.9m, followed by KLM at 127.1m. Lufthansa, which avoided a fine after it alerted the EU watchdog to the cartel, had also appealed the decision because it disagreed with the Commission's legal arguments. The EU watchdog said the cartel fixed air freight services, fuel and security surcharges from December 1999 to February 2006.<br/>