In this decision published at a time when overseas territories are the scene of demands against the cost of living, the Authority affirmed that this coordination between companies which shared the regional flight market allowed them to “increase the average price of tickets sold.
It was Air Caraibes (Dubreuil group) which was the most heavily sanctioned (13 million euros), for these facts dating back to the period 2015-2019, specified the Competition Authority in a press release, also revealing a sanction of 1.5 million euros against K Finance, parent company of Air Antilles at the time via the CAIRE group and Guyane Aéroinvest. The consulting company Miles Plus (Aerogestion) was fined 70,000 euros in the same case.
Reciprocal commitments
According to the Authority, “the companies involved implemented three agreements on the prices and pricing conditions of inter-island air connections within the French and international Caribbean” between 2015 and 2019. Specifically, these were the connections between “Pointe-à-Pitre and Fort-de-France, as well as those between each of these two cities and Saint-Martin, Sainte-Lucie and Santo Domingo,” she said. underlines.
“Between February and June 2015, then again in September and December 2016, Air Antilles and Air Caraibes, with the support of Aérogestion, discussed their future pricing intentions and made reciprocal commitments on the pricing conditions of airline tickets. plane,” according to the same source.
“Then, between April 2017 and December 2019, the companies involved participated in a third agreement on fixing prices and pricing conditions”, which led “from the 2017-2018 winter season, to the implementation in place of common price scales leading to a very significant increase in prices”, all within the framework of a “non-aggression agreement”.
Anticompetitive practices
“The anti-competitive practices put in place by Air Antilles and Air Caraibes are particularly serious,” ruled the Competition Authority, noting that “air connections represent an essential mode of travel in this region and where they were the only ones to operate on them at the material time.”
“The inhabitants of these territories, faced with a cost of living significantly higher than in mainland France, have no really viable alternative to flying” and have been placed “in the position of captive customers”, a- she estimated. And according to the Authority's investigation, this agreement on prices notably occurred “during the occurrence of Hurricane Irma in September 2017, impacting a captive clientele of refugees who were facing a humanitarian emergency.”
“Air Caraibes takes note of the decision of the Competition Authority published today and which relates to old facts concerning only the West Indian regional network,” reacted the company in a press release sent to AFP.
Tense context
“We are analyzing this decision with our advice in order to consider possible follow-ups,” added the carrier, which also operates long-haul flights with the metropolis. From a source close to the matter, the company had provisioned in its 2023 accounts the maximum amount associated with a sanction from the Authority.
It decided not to impose a direct fine on Air Antilles, which was not solvent because it had recently been liquidated. It is its former parent company, K Finance, which is therefore targeted by the sanction. The CAIRE group, the company name of Air Antilles, was partially taken over in 2023 by a holding company of the Edeis airport group, allied with the community of Saint-Martin, making it possible to relaunch Air Antilles flights in July 2024.
