Head of Australia’s competition watchdog calls for new mandate to police airline industry

The head of the competition watchdog has called for a fresh mandate from the Albanese government to monitor the airline industry and help new entrants compete with established players Qantas and Virgin. The chair of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, Gina Cass-Gottlieb, said the regulator sees “a case” for a mandate to look into competition, prices and industry practices after an earlier direction expired in June. Cass-Gottlieb’s call follows a Senate inquiry hearing this week in which industry and airline heads, including Virgin Australia’s Jayne Hrdlicka, backed a revamped watchdog monitoring program – standing in contrast to Qantas, which did not support a renewed probe.In June 2020, the Morrison government directed the ACCC to monitor the domestic industry for anti-competitive behaviour at a time of crisis, following Virgin Australia entering administration and the loss of budget carrier Tiger, as well as broader disruptions from pandemic border closures threatening other airlines operations. Despite calls for an extension from within the aviation sector and consumer advocates concerned about price gouging, the ACCC’s domestic airline monitoring program concluded in June. Since then, concerns about anti-competitive practices such as slot hoarding have only grown, with the ACCC launching court action against Qantas for allegedly advertising and selling tickets for more than 8,000 flights that it had already cancelled in its system. Asked if the ACCC would like monitoring of the aviation industry to be renewed, Cass-Gottlieb told Guardian Australia: “That original direction had a specific focus on the impact of Covid. “We do see a case for reinstatement of a direction that would look to the status of competition, and survey prices, costs and the manner of operations.”<br/>