Airlines urged to be sensitive to the plight of consumers amid Comair flight suspension
The recent announcement made by Comair to effectively suspend all British Airways and kulula.com flights with immediate effect, a decision which will significantly reduce capacity in the domestic air travel and reduce competition, has been noted by the Competition Commission of South Africa.
Concerned about the impact of Comair's decision on air ticket prices and in order to understand how capacity could be brought to the market to mitigate the impact of the decision, the Commission on Wednesday, 1 June 2022 met separately with the leadership of major airlines, Lyft, FlySafair, Airlink and the South African Airways (SAA).
The Commission sought to prevent any possible price gouging emanating from the supply shock.
The Commission was encouraged by the positive response of all the airlines in this respect as they acknowledged the need to bring in more capacity in the market and committed not to change their pricing methodologies to exploit the situation. All parties further acknowledged the challenges posed by the rising fuel prices which will further put pressure on the cost of air travel.
The Commission will monitor the situation.
