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The Congress of the People would like to express our shock at the World Cup greed which seems to have taken hold of most of the airline industry around the time of the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

With airfares expected to rise in some cases by as much as 300%, air travel for South Africans, already a luxury, would be out of reach for almost everyone.

While all South Africans will no doubt join in the festivities of the once-in-a-lifetime event of the World Cup being staged in this country, the airlines cannot expect business to go on holiday for more than a month. This would be an inevitable consequence of this price hike.

Airlines will no doubt make a killing during that period, but all sectors must ensure that our visitors leave our shores as friends, intent on returning. Leaving some guests with the sense of having been exploited is surely counter-productive to the long term benefits of hosting the World Cup.

While the aviation industry is in trouble to varying degrees worldwide, the anticipated hikes in air fares smacks of opportunism at best, and at worst, possible anti-competition collusion. COPE calls on the airlines in question to publicly justify their position.