Airlines can't be blamed for soaring local flight prices - Aviation expert

John Maytham speaks with Linden Birns, MD of Plane Talking - an aviation consultancy.

Listen below.

Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Trade, Industry, and Competition has called on the Consumer Commission to investigate the cost of local flights.

The Committee Chairperson, Mzwandile Masina, accused local airlines of increasing ticket prices to the point that they are unaffordable for most South Africans.

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Birns says that the cost of flights compared to average income in South Africa are much higher than in other parts of the world.

In South Africa, a ticket costs about 2.8 weeks’ worth of income if you are travelling in Africa, and 6.5 weeks  worth of income if you are travelling internationally.

In the EU, flights cost closer to three days’ worth of income for local flights, and less that a week for international flights.

That being said, Birns says we cannot blame the airline for this as almost a third of the price comes from government charges and taxes.

“It is a little disingenuous to paint airlines as the villains here.”

- Linden Birns, MD of Plane Talking an aviation consultancy 

He says that air travel could be far more affordable if government rolled back some of the charges that airlines face.

Birns adds that South African airlines make around R17 per passenger per flight, while the global average is R116.

Scroll up to the audio player to listen the interview.