Australia’s consumer watchdog is keeping a close eye on national
carrier Qantas as fares on some routes more than double when compared to
pre-pandemic prices.
Qantas has denied that it is holding back capacity to drive demand,
but the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission wants to check
all the same.
Qantas says it has reduced its capacity to cope with issues such as sick leave and supply chain problems
In its latest Airline Competition in Australia report, the ACCC said
it would be concerned “if the airlines withheld capacity in order to
keep airfares high”.
Qantas is operating at about 95% of pre-Covid levels.
Andrew McGinnes, Qantas's group executive of corporate affairs, told
the ABC, "There are structural issues that we have around sick leave,
around supply chain. That means we need more resilience. "The way we get
that is by reducing capacity. It's very much about supply and demand.”