Aviation expert, Desmond Latham, has said the rise in prices of flights is a response to the grounding of Comair flights in March this year.
The carrier suspended Kulula and British Airways flights after running out of money.
Latham said there’s little the Competition Commission can do to ensure airlines don’t hike prices due to Comair’s grounding.
He said the rules of supply and demand will kick in.
The commission met with airlines and received commitments that prices would not be inflated but passengers are already seeing increases of up to 30-percent. Latham discussed the situation with eNCA’s Gareth Edwards:
I understand the Competition Commission’s position if airlines refuse to raise prices then they’re colluding, they’re doomed if they do and if they don’t. Prices have already gone up by around 30 percent and that’s a natural supply and demand.
I don’t know if the Competition Commission can step in to do this. We’re not a centrally managed socialist state, we have market capitalists that run this system. So there’s a limit to what the Competition Commission can do. The bottom line is airlines have raised it.
The South African government is worried about the impact on tourism.