Aviation news: Complaints filed against Kenya Airways fare moves

(eTN) – Airlines flying on Kenya’s domestic routes between Nairobi to Mombasa and Kisumu have filed a formal complaint with the Competition Authority over the national airline’s, Kenya Airways (KQ

(eTN) – Airlines flying on Kenya’s domestic routes between Nairobi to Mombasa and Kisumu have filed a formal complaint with the Competition Authority over the national airline’s, Kenya Airways (KQ), move to bring their fares to such low levels, which other airlines’ executives termed in communications with this correspondent “unsustainable, financial lunacy, and only aimed to crush us commercially before then doubling the fares again.”

Kenya does have monopoly laws, and it is contained in the letter of the law that predatory pricing is effectively in place when services or goods are sold below cost, an aspect, however, hard to prove in a court of law, more so as some of the new lowest fares put on the market are restricted to very few of KQ’s many departures across the day to in particular the Indian Ocean port city of Mombasa.

Nevertheless, notice clearly has been served by airlines like Jetlink, Fly540, and others that “enough is enoug,” as one official on condition of anonymity put it and that government has now been called to the scene to try and either use regulatory mechanisms, directives, or gentle persuasion to get the situation back to normal.

Passengers, however, have expressed their delight with the new low fares, saying it will make travel to the coast or to the lakeside city of Kisumu a lot cheaper for them, with only a handful of those regular travelers asked conceding that they might pay dearly after the competition has been pushed out of the market.

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Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

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