Following complaints about a spike in airline ticket prices last year, the Competition Commission found no proof of price gouging by domestic airlines.
Ticket prices rose sharply in the second half of last year amid a fuel price spike due to the impact of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The removal of Comair's kulula.com and domestic British Airways flights due to provisional liquidation also left a gap in the domestic airline market in the middle of last year.
Comair had about a 40% market share when it went into provisional liquidation in June last year and suspended flights. At that stage, domestic seat supply in SA was up to about 75% of pre-pandemic capacity in 2019. Comair's removal reduced seat capacity to an estimated 45% of 2019 numbers.