SA airlines: Ticket price hike amidst Comair suspension?

It’s a question on everyone’s mind: Are consumers going to pay more for flights after the Comair suspension? The Competition Commission of SA weighs in.

Competition Commission keeping an eye on other airlines

On Wednesday, 1 June, the South African Competition Commission said they were concerned about the impact of the Comair suspension on air ticket prices and in order to understand how capacity could be brought to the market to help with the impact of Comair’s decision, they met separately with leaders of the major airlines within SA, which included Lyft, FlySafair, Airlink and South African Airways (SAA).

In a statement, they said that the point of the meetings were specifically to prevent any possible price gouging emanating from the supply shock.

The meetings all ended on a positive note as the Commission was encouraged by the positive response of all the airlines regarding the matter at hand, 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 also said that all parties further acknowledged the challenges posed by the rising fuel prices which will further put pressure on the cost of air travel.

Comair suspension

In a statement on Tuesday, 31 May, Comair announced that all of their flights, both British Airways and Kulula.com, would be suspended due to lack of funding. They claimed that the suspension was in force while it attempted to secure additional funding.

Glenn Orsmond, Comair CEO, said the airline deeply regrets the inconvenience the suspension will cause for customers.

“We did everything we could to avoid it. Comair, the BRPs and the lenders are working all out to get the funding in place so that we can resume our normal flight schedule as soon as possible,” he said.

The carrier is yet to provide details on when the issue will be resolved.

ALSO READ: Insufficient funds? Comair grounds all flights from 1 June