Turkey may set ceiling price for flight tickets

ISTANBUL - Anadolu Agency

Turkish authorities have started to work to prevent airline companies from selling flight tickets at very high prices during national holidays or other special days, Minister of Transport Binali Yıldırım said yesterday.

“We have already started to work on the issue, as we did for land transportation tickets before. The General Directorate of Civil Aviation may bring a ceiling price for flight tickets,” Yıldırım said. He noted that intervening in the market should be a last resort move, and that the sector should find the middle way. “We say ‘yes’ to competition, but ‘no’ to robbing citizens,” Yıldırım said.

The government made a radical change in civil aviation in 2003, allowing competition in domestic flights and removing the barriers that inhibited private airline companies from entering into the market. “Airline companies however may try to earn much more money during national holidays. Our citizens of course should buy their tickets weeks ahead; that’s true, but we do not have such a habit, unfortunately,” he said.