L'ouverture du marché polynésien du transport aérien international menacée par la communication de l'Autorité de la concurrence

French Bee and United Airlines access agreements to Polynesia could have an impact not only on the competitive structure of the market but also on the local tourism sectors at large, on the short and long term. In addition to the challenge of adapting to international competition, the Polynesian tourism trade must also face a new situation due to a potential 50 % increase of passenger capacity. In such a fragile economic context, the APC Polynesian Competition Authority published a notice on the given area, following its own initiative taken two years before. Even though one can deplore the lack of thoroughness of some of the analyses, their view does not fundamentally question the functioning of the sector. However, the corporate communication accompanying the notice publication raised a number of misunderstandings. The communiqué implied that the two companies already operating were organizing the scarcity of seats supply in order to increase their prices, which caused a significant commercial prejudice to Air Tahiti Nui (ATN) and Air France with regard to their image at the very moment they have to face a new and intense competition. Successive APC declarations, offensive and awkward more often than once, have generated a fierce controversy. Putting aside questions raised by the lack of rigour of analysis, one can seriously doubt that the situation has helped in any way either free competition in the sector, or the consumer, or the still weak but important tourism ecosystem. The objective of this paper is to illustrate to what extent APC, being an independent administrative authority, ought to be rigorous in providing opinions, act responsibly and give clear and sound information when dealing with mechanisms controlling and regulating the markets especially when they are so vital to the overall economic life of the territory.