Comair advised shareholders on Wednesday that the South Gauteng High Court has ruled in its favour in a case Comair initiated against South African Airways (SAA) 14 years ago in respect of the national carrier's anti-competitive travel agent incentive schemes.

According to Comair the scheme was designed to keep travel agents loyal to SAA, therefore allegedly being in breach of the Competition Act. The scheme was in place from 2001 to about 2006.

“This has been a long and complex case. It has taken 14 years to get to this point and we are pleased that a judgement has now been handed down. We pursued this case because a dominant carrier had abused its position in the market to the detriment of its competitors, their shareholders and employees, and the flying public. We will need some time to study the judgement before making any detailed comment,” said Comair CEO Erik Venter.

In terms of the judgement, Comair was awarded R554-million plus interest at 15.5% on this amount, which will be capped at the value of the award, plus costs, amounting to approximately R1.16-billion in total. Comair said it will need time to study the judgment. It did, however, advise that the judgement is subject to appeal by both parties and shareholders should be conscious of this when trading in the company’s securities. By mid-afternoon trading Comair's share price was already up 15.05% to R5.81.

Nationwide, which also sued SAA on the same issue, was awarded R171.5-million plus interest in damages last year.

LEGACY MATTER
SAA spokesperson Tlali Tlali told Fin24 on Wednesday that the airline has taken note of the judgment involving SAA’s anti-competitive behaviour from 1999 to 2005.

"The airline’s counsel will study the judgment and will advise the company on how to proceed," said Tlali.

"It is important to note that this is one of the legacy matters, dating back to the period between 1999 and 2005 and implemented by the then management team. All of those managers left the company a while back and new business management processes were since introduced to ensure compliance with all relevant prescripts."

Tlali said the current management is focused on turning the business around to ensure that SAA is commercially viable, operationally competitive and financially self-reliant in the shortest time possible.

"A number of interventions will be implemented and others have already been initiated aimed at ensuring positive business improvements take place in a matter of months," said Tlali.

"The airline will not debate any merits of the case in the media."Comair announced on Tuesday that its unaudited interim results for the six months ended December 31 2016 saw revenue growth of 6% as a result of a recovery in yields, but without any increase in volumes.

Profit after taxation for the period was R199-million compared to R84-million during the prior period. Earnings per share and headline earning per share were 42.8 cents (18c during the prior period).

Following on the strong cash earnings for the interim period a gross interim cash dividend of 7c per share (compared to 5c during the previous period) was approved for ordinary shareholders. The dividend was declared out of income reserves.

Growth in the contribution from Comair’s non-airline segment was strong.

In the meantime Stuart Cochrane, executive manager: business processes at ‎Comair, told Fin24 that he can confirm that Comair has received a request from the government of Botswana to consider submitting an expression of interest to take over Air Botswana.

"We are currently reviewing the details of the potential opportunity before we make a decision,” said Cochrane.