The South African Competition Commission said it is monitoring airline ticket prices in the country.
This follows the grounding of Kulula and British Airways flights by Comair on Tuesday evening, a decision which will significantly reduce capacity in domestic air travel and reduce competition.
The competition watchdog said it was 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, they met separately with the leadership of major airlines, Lyft, FlySafair, Airlink and the South African Airways (SAA). “Specifically, the Commission sought to prevent any possible price gouging emanating from the supply shock,” they said.
They added that they were 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 to exploit the situation.
They shared that all parties acknowledged the challenges posed by the rising fuel prices which will further put pressure on the cost of air travel.
Comair announced on Tuesday that its flights have been voluntarily suspended pending securing funding to resume operations.
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Picture: Cape Town ETC
