Despite Airports Company South Africa’s excellent annual results, airline passengers are still going to be hit with increased fees, the Board of Airline Representatives of South Africa (Barsa) said on Friday.
“These substantial increases basically mean that the end-consumer is going to be hit twice with increased fees — both in terms of the passenger service fees and with an increase in ticket prices,” said Barsa chairperson Peter Barry, also general manager for Virgin Atlantic Airways.
He said this is because the airlines have no choice but to incorporate the increased tariffs into the price of their tickets.
For example, between January and March next year, the cheapest one-way ticket from Johannesburg to Cape Town is expected to cost R500 on average, according to 1Time airlines. This amount will be affected by service fees and the availability of bookings.
Barsa chief executive June Crawford said while the average 11,4% increase between the period 2007 and 2012 is better than the initially proposed 17%, it is still “unacceptably high”.
Barry is further concerned that while Acsa has emphasised that passengers only pay for airports they use, this principle does not apply to airline tariff increases.
“So, in the end, airline passengers are still going to be subsidising the building of the new greenfield airport at La Mercy in KwaZulu-Natal, along with other local airports which they may never use,” he said.