Comair grounding: Competition Commission warns airlines not to exploit passengers

South Africa’s Competition Commission has warned the country’s operating airlines against the ‘price gouging’ of passengers left stranded by the grounding of airliners operated by Comair, and so urgently seeking seats on alternative operators. Comair operates the British Airways in South Africa and Kulula low-cost carrier brands, and its Air Operator Certificate was suspended by the South African Civil Aviation Authority on Saturday. “[T]his suspension meant that significant airline seat capacity had been removed from the market and that would undoubtedly result in travellers having to scramble up the remaining tickets in higher fare buckets [sic],” said the Competition Commission in a statement released on Wednesday. “It has now emerged that there are reports and complaints of large increases in price for seats on remaining airlines some even quoting R5 000 [for a] single flight ticket from Johannesburg to Cape Town.”