Qantas and six other airlines have been hit with a $200 million class action alleging they were part of a secret cartel that used fuel, security and war-risk surcharges artificially to inflate air freight prices.

The lawsuit was lodged in the Australian Federal Court by class action specialist Maurice Blackburn Cashman on January 11 and served on Qantas today.

The statement of claim alleges that Qantas, Lufthansa, Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Air New Zealand, Japan Airlines and British Airways had struck an agreement seven years ago "for the fixing, controlling or maintaining of the price of international air freight services". According to the statement of claim, the airlines conspired to "conceal the agreement, arrangement or understanding as in place from time to time from the whole world".

The case follows on from similar litigation in the US and Canada.

It will take another two to three years to get to trial but Maurice Blackburn Cashman principal Kim Parker told me the fact that Lufthansa had already made an $US85 million settlement as part of the US litigation gave her team hope that the case could be resolved earlier.