Investigators with India’s antitrust watchdog have found no evidence that the country’s biggest airline, IndiGo , and four rival carriers colluded to fix ticket prices, three sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters.<\/p>\n
The Competition Commission of India (CCI) in 2015 ordered a probe into allegations of anti-competitive practices after similar fares were being offered on certain routes by IndiGo, SpiceJet , GoAir, state-run Air India [AIN.UL] and now-defunct Jet Airways .<\/p>\n
The CCI inquiry, which included an analysis of the algorithms airlines to determine ticket fares, found that all five airlines were working independently, the three sources said.<\/p>\n
“No direct evidence of cartelisation was found,” said one of the sources, who added the investigation also did not reveal any communication amongst airline executives to fix prices.<\/p>\n
Budget airline IndiGo, the country’s biggest carrier, said in a statement “the case is without merit” and added that it has been cooperating with the investigation.<\/p>\n
The second-biggest airline, SpiceJet, GoAir, Air India and Jet Airways did not respond to a request for comment. The CCI did not respond to questions from Reuters.<\/p>\n
An adverse finding could have led to a fine of up to three times the profit made in each year prices were fixed, or 10% of annual revenue, whichever is higher. Indian airlines are already grappling with slow growth in air traffic.<\/p>\n
Details of the CCI case, which was investigated in two phases, have not been made public in line with the watchdog’s practice.<\/p>\n
The agency, whose senior members are reviewing the investigation findings, has not made a final ruling and could further extend the investigation. But two of the sources said the airlines were likely to be cleared.<\/p>\n
The CCI’s investigation arm had already produced a report in 2016 saying no antitrust practices were detected. The agency directed a further probe into fare-determining software and seat-allocation patterns, a second source said.<\/p>\n
Antitrust lawyer Gautam Shahi, who is not involved in the case, said a finding of no antitrust misconduct would be a big relief for a sector that has faced intense scrutiny.<\/p>\n
In a separate antitrust case in 2018, the CCI found that IndiGo, Jet Airways and SpiceJet had colluded over fuel surcharge rates on cargo flights, fining them a total of 544 million rupees ($7.61 million). The airlines have appealed that judgment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Investigators with India’s antitrust watchdog have found no evidence that the country’s biggest airline, IndiGo , and four rival carriers colluded to fix ticket prices, three sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters. The Competition Commission of India (CCI) in 2015 ordered a probe into allegations of anti-competitive practices after similar fares were being offered on certain routes by IndiGo, SpiceJet , GoAir, state-run Air India [AIN.UL] and now-defunct Jet Airways . The CCI inquiry, which included an analysis of the algorithms airlines to determine ticket fares, found that all five airlines were working independently, the three sources […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[229],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-338224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-civil-aviation"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/infralive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/infralive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/infralive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/infralive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/infralive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=338224"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/infralive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338224\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/infralive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=338224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/infralive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=338224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/infralive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=338224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}