Airline overbooking ‘illegal’

CONSUMER COMMISSION: INVESTIGATION INTO FLYSAFAIR TAKING LONGER THAN EXPECTED

- Roy Cokayne

The National Consumer Commission (NCC) has emphasised that over-booking and overselling airline flight tickets is illegal in terms of the Consumer Protection Act (CPA).

Hardin Ratshisusu, acting commissioner of the NCC and deputy commissioner of the Competition Commission, told a joint meeting of parliament's portfolio committees on trade, industry and competition and of transport on Tuesday that there are specific provisions in the CPA that deal with overbooking and overselling.

The focus of the meeting was on competition issues in the budget airline industry and follows the NCC on 8 January initiating an investigation into the conduct of overbooking and overselling by local and regional airline FlySafair to assess its compliance with the provisions of the CPA.

“I just need to emphasise that the CPA prohibits a supplier from accepting payment for goods or services that do not exist,” said Ratshisusu.

“So suppliers must not offer services or products that are not there to consumers because the CPA will kick in.”

He added that given the nature of the allegations against FlySafair, this is a priority investigation by the NCC – and urged consumers who are affected by this practice to come forward and provide information that could assist the investigation.

Ratshisusu said the FlySafair investigation is still underway and information provided by consumers will be considered as the NCC looks into this matter.

Ratshisusu said the NCC notified FlySafair of the investigation on 8 January, the same date as the initiation of the investigation, and received an initial response from FlySafair on 30 January with a lot of supporting information and data.

‘Further probing required’