By Rorisang Modiba
- The National Consumer Commission wants a tribunal to give airline FlySafair a huge financial penalty for overbooking many passenger flights.
- FlySafair marketing officer Kirby Gordon said the airline acted lawfully because overbooking is a standard global practice across the industry.
Many passengers arrived to check in for flights but workers told them there were no open seats. The National Consumer Commission has sent airline FlySafair to the National Consumer Tribunal over complaints about overbooking tickets.
The commission said its investigation showed the airline regularly sold too many tickets during November 2024, December 2024 and January 2025. It said FlySafair broke consumer laws by overselling services, using unfair terms and failing to give services as agreed.
More than 5,000 passengers were booked on overbooked flights during those months. The commission said the airline made a lot of money from the practice. It asked the tribunal to give FlySafair a fine of 10% of the annual turnover of the airline and ban the practice.
FlySafair said it worked fully with the investigation and wants to present the case. FlySafair marketing officer Kirby Gordon said the airline believes it acted lawfully, transparently and in good faith.
Gordon said overbooking is a globally accepted practice in the airline industry. Companies use it to plan for passengers who do not arrive for flights. Gordon said the overbooking policy of the airline is careful and stays below historical rates for people who do not show up.
The airline said more than 99.98% of customers travelled successfully during the review period. Most of the 5,000 passengers still flew as planned because expected missing passengers did not show up. Only 0.02% of passengers were denied boarding.
Gordon said the airline offered every denied passenger a new flight, a refund and compensation. Gordon said 93.3% of flights departed on time and no flights were cancelled. All scheduled flights and customer bookings remain unaffected while the case continues.
Pictured above: A FlySafair Aircraft.
Image source: FlySafair
