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# One of South Africa’s biggest airlines is being sold, and one of its rivals is trying to stop the deal
- URL: https://www.businessbagel.com/cemair-flysafair-harith-lanseria-tribunal/
- Published: 2026-08-19T02:30:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-08-19T02:29:59.000Z
- Description: The buyer of South Africa's biggest domestic airline already holds 37.5% of Lanseria, and the state's pension fund sits on both sides of that line.
- Author: Christian Maidman
- Tags: Companies, Business Bagel News

Harith Aviation is trying to buy Safair Holdings, which owns and operates FlySafair, from Dublin-based ASL Aviation Holdings. FlySafair carries 67% of domestic air travel in South Africa. The Competition Commission recommended in July that the Competition Tribunal approve the deal with conditions. On Monday, at the Tribunal hearing, rival airline CemAir asked for it to be prohibited instead.

## The overlap CemAir is pointing at

Advocate Dwight Snyman, appearing for CemAir, spent his time on shareholdings rather than fares. Harith InfraCo holds about 37.5% of Lanseria International Airport, and Harith InfraCo is one of the two entities that will jointly control Harith Aviation once the deal completes. The Government Employees Pension Fund, represented by the Public Investment Corporation, holds about 62.5% of the same airport. The PIC also owns 20% of Acsa, which runs the country's main airport network, and the state owns all of South African Airways, a FlySafair competitor.

Snyman's argument is that the deal ties a substantial domestic airline to a shareholder in the infrastructure its rivals use, creating both the ability and the incentive to coordinate airline and airport strategy in a way that did not exist before. He asked for prohibition, or failing that structural conditions: independent airport governance, removal of common directors, enforceable information firewalls and transparent slot and tariff criteria. Behavioural promises, he said, should not be accepted unless they are objectively measurable, independently monitored and rapidly enforceable.

## What the regulator and the buyer say back

The Commission looked at the deal both vertically and horizontally and found no overlap in activities, because the buying group is not a passenger airline and is not active in the aviation value chain. It heard input foreclosure concerns from other airlines and concluded the merged firm has no incentive to act on them: Lanseria is a limited slice of the national airport market, Gauteng still has capacity, and Lanseria has spent billions over the past decade on facilities built to attract more airlines. Its two conditions cover information exchange, and fair, non-discriminatory terms for other airlines at Lanseria.

Jerome Wilson, for the merging parties, called CemAir's testimony a dangerous and disturbing thesis and confirmed that no PIC funds are going into the transaction in equity or debt. The PIC would end up with a minuscule interest in FlySafair and no form of control, he said.

The South African Cabin Crew Association also made submissions, telling the Tribunal its members are not opposed to the sale and want written assurances against merger-related retrenchments. CemAir does not fly to Lanseria itself; FlySafair is currently the only airline that does, and Airlink plans to start flights from there to Harare in November. The Tribunal now decides.