JOHANNESBURG – South African Airways says it is giving its full support to an investigation into allegations of price fixing of air tickets to the World Cup soccer tournament, due to kick off on June 11.
The state-owned carrier, and its low-cost airline Mango, had their offices raided by the nation’s antitrust regulator as part of an investigation into price collusion.
The Competition Commission seized documents and electronic data in the March 31 raids, which also included a search of the offices of the Airlines Association of Southern Africa
The commission said in January that it is investigating Comair Ltd, which is part owned by British Airways, and other domestic airlines for allegedly colluding to fix the price of air tickets during the World Cup.
South Africa expects to attract 350,000 visitors to the matches, according to FIFA, the soccer governing body.
According to a Bloomberg report, the latest raid was “prompted by the commission’s suspicion SAA and Mango might have withheld information having a bearing on the investigation,†the commission said.
Documents seized “will now be analysed together with other information gathered to determine whether a contravention of the Competition Act has taken place.â€
