‘Paying too much’: calls for ongoing inquiry to monitor airlines over price-gouging fears

The ACCC’s program monitoring Australian airlines will wrap up at the end of June but former watchdog chief Rod Sims has said a broader ongoing inquiry ‘would be very valuable to the industry’. Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images

A key government program monitoring Australian airlines’ behaviour is ending just as carriers face claims they are overcharging passengers, prompting consumer and aviation figures to call for a dedicated and ongoing inquiry to probe the industry.

Calls for greater scrutiny from Australian Airports Association chief executive, James Goodwin, and former competition tsar Rod Sims come as the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s (ACCC) domestic aviation monitoring taskforce expires at the end of June.