Following the ticket price hikes by El Al Israel Airlines Ltd. (TASE: ELAL) in recent days and the flight cancellations by foreign airlines, State Comptroller Judge (ret.) Joseph Shapira announced today that he had begun an examination of alleged price gouging by Israeli airlines in the course of returning Israel passengers to Israel.
Shapira received complaints about price gouging in recent days. Even before his examination began, however, he had already asked his office staff to plan an audit on the matter.
The comptroller has no legal authority to criticize the airlines, including El Al, directly. The inquiry will therefore be conducted among the various regulators responsible for supervising the airlines.
Among other things, the comptroller will examine the authority of the Ministry of Transport, Israel Airports Authority, Israel Civil Aviation Authority, the Ministry of the Economy and its price supervision, Ministry of Finance, and the airlines' status with respect to the Government Companies Authority.
The main question to be probed by the comptroller is the state's status for El Al, and whether the state should have intervened in favor of the consumers to stop price gouging by the airlines.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on July 24, 2014
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