SAA doubles back in subsidy saga

SAA has made an extraordinary about-turn on its admission that it subsidised Mango by leasing it aircraft at a discount. It now denies this.

The aviation industry worldwide is prone to anticompetitive behaviour because of its structure. “It’s a network industry. If you have dominance in the network, you can abuse it,” Walters said.

Subsidies in aviation are almost as old as air transport itself, according to an International Transport Forum economist, Alain Lumbroso, as reported on oecdinsights.org. 

“Most, if not all, countries at one point or another have provided public funding to some parts of their aviation value chains, be it air carriers, airports or air navigation services such as air traffic control.”