Airlines SWC Price Fixing

Price Fixing Flights for Soccer World Cup

The competitions Commission has launched an investigation into possible price fixing by airlines during the Soccer World Cup. South African Airways apparently broke its silence on the matter in December 2009 (in exchange for leniency of course), and the situation includes BA, SA Airlink, Mango, 1Time and SAA. If this is true then all of these airlines will face a steep fine and reprimand for attempting to do this. However, will they be forced to bring down prices to a more realistic level, or just pay the fine, but keep prices sky high (sometimes as much as 5x the standard cost. There is nothing wrong with increasing the fares during peak travel periods, but the increases we are seeing for the SWC are obscene.