The prices of flights, especially between Johannesburg and Cape Town have increased sharply in recent days, costing as much as R6 000 for a return ticket on some airlines.
Picture: Cape Town International Airport
According to Moneyweb, Comair’s flights accounted for roughly 40% of the supply market and its liquidation is the main cause of increased demand leading to price hikes. The rise in fuel prices are also a major factor.
The Competition Commission held meetings with FlySafair, Lift, Airlink and SAA in June to discuss rate increases and try to prevent possible price gouging. The commission warned that it would monitor airline prices and investigate if fares became suspiciously high.
However FlySafair CEO Kirby Gordon said that ‘pricing is always as a result of supply and demand forces in the market and when one [is] approached with a situation like we are at the moment, where supply is being constrained relative to the demand that is out there, we are going to see increases in prices, that is only natural’.
Following the meeting with the Competition Commission, airlines agreed not to change their pricing methodologies to exploit the situation and to bring more capacity to the market.
FlySafair intends on adding 10 new routes to its list of destinations, expanding its range across sub-Saharan Africa to fill the gap left in the market by Comair.
Other airlines are also ramping up services to mitigate the loss of around 9 000 airplane seats, with Airlink partnering with Qatar Airways and also adding more flights to St Helena Island. Lift, which currently only operates between Cape Town and Johannesburg, is reportedly planning on adding a Johannesburg – Durban route too.
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