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In a press release issued yesterday, Wednesday December 4, the French competition authority (Autorité de la Concurrence) announced that the airlines Air Antilles and Air Caraïbes had been fined 14.57 million euros. The reason: agreements on ticket prices and on the level of supply on certain destinations. In this case, the routes linking Pointe-à-Pitre and Fort-de-France, as well as those between each of these two cities and Saint-Martin, Saint Lucia and Santo Domingo.
"Compagnie Aérienne Inter Régionale Express (CAIRE, operating under the trade name Air Antilles), Air Caraïbes and Miles Plus (a consultancy firm operating under the name Aérogestion) have implemented, betweenBetween 2015 and 2019, the French competition authority (Autorité de la Concurrence) explains, "they implemented four agreements aimed at enabling Air Antilles and Air Caraïbes to carry out significant fare increases and reduce supply while preserving their respective market shares.
13 million fine for Air Caraïbes
Air Caraïbes and Miles Plus (Aérogestion) applied to the Autorité for the benefit of the settlement procedure, and their fines were set at 13 million and 70,000 euros respectively. "In view of the "zero contributory capacity" of Air Antilles (CAIRE) and its parent company Guyane Aéroinvest, the French considered, in line with its established practice, that there was no reason to apply a financial penalty to them", it explains. Nevertheless, the Autorité de la concurrence imposed a solidarity penalty of 1.5 million euros on their parent company K Finance.
Between February and June 2015, and again in September and December 2016, Air Antilles and Air Caraïbes, with the support of Aérogestion, exchanged on their future fare intentions and made reciprocal commitments on airfare conditions, the French competition authority said.
Non-aggression pact
Then, between April 2017 and December 2019, the accused companies took part in a third agreement on setting prices and fare conditions. The Autorité points out that these exchanges on prices led, from the winter 2017/18 season onwards, to the implementation of common pricing grids resulting in "a very significant increase in prices". These practices were part of a "non-aggression agreement", the pricing component of which prohibited each of the two companies from undercutting the other. This agreement enabled them to perpetuate the price levels and new conditions applicable to fares reached at the end of December 2017, until at least December 31, 2019.
The French Competition Authority notes that these practices have had a significant impact on travel by local customers, who travel for family, professional or leisure reasons within the French territory. In particular between Guadeloupe, Martinique, Saint-Martin and Saint-Barthélemy, but also to other destinations in the Caribbean zone.
A post-Irma fare agreement
Moreover, notes the AC, the reduction in the number of frequencies and the increase in fares has also affected the tourist appeal of all the territories concerned, as well as their economic attractiveness.s tourist appeal, but also their economic attractiveness, insofar as the agreements implemented have contributed to a scarcity of supply and higher prices for business travellers too.
In its press release, the Autorité also points out that the companies in question "agreed in particular on the fares to be offered when Hurricane Irma struck in September 2017, impacting a captive clientele of refugees who were facing the same difficulties as the rest of the population.the captive refugee clientele who were facing a humanitarian emergency, i.e. who could neither postpone nor forego travel and who had no alternative means of transport".
