Travel restrictions as a result of the recent COVID-19 Delta outbreaks have brought the majority of domestic flying to a stop and delivered a significant blow to the local airline industry, the ACCC’s latest Airline Competition in Australia report reveals.
Privatising assets without allowing for competition or regulation creates private monopolies that raise prices, reduce efficiency and harm the economy, ACCC Chair Rod Sims said in a speech on Thursday.
Speaking at the 2021 ACCC/AER Regulatory Conference, Mr Sims discussed the need to either avoid monopolies, or if not then regulate them, to prevent costs to the economy arising from unfettered use of their market power.
Mr Sims put forward two possible solutions to avoid privatisations creating future unfettered private monopolies.
The global pandemic caused the operating profits from aeronautical activities at Australia’s four largest airports to drop to a decade low after passenger numbers fell dramatically late in the 2019–20 financial year, the ACCC’s latest Airport Monitoring Report reveals.
Efficient infrastructure is integral to rebuilding the economy beyond the pandemic but cannot come by excessively focussing on the needs of infrastructure owners at the expense of the users, ACCC Chair Rod Sims said today.
Mr Sims was speaking at the Australian Financial Review’s National Infrastructure Summit on competition issues in infrastructure and changes since COVID-19.