The Competition Commission has given the mooted deal that will see Harith buy South Africa’s largest passenger airline, FlySafair, the greenlight to take off, with the ball now in the Competition Tribunal’s court to give the transaction the requisite approvals.The commission on Monday said it will recommend to the tribunal to approve the deal with conditions, which relate to Harith’s interest in Lanseria International Airport.The watchdog said the deal, first announced in January could go ahead on condition that there will be no collusive and competitive conduct regarding Harith’s investment in Lanseria, the country’s only privately owned international airport.“The acquiring group is an asset management firm specialising in infrastructure fund management through Harith GP. The primary activities of Harith GP involve financing infrastructure projects across various sectors, including energy, transportation, telecommunications, water and sanitation, and healthcare,” the commission said.“FlySafair is a passenger airline business and provides scheduled domestic and regional passenger services and may transport cargo incidental to its passenger operations.“To remedy the competition concerns likely to arise from the proposed merger, the merger parties agreed to the following conditions: information exchange and ensuring that the airline-related or airport-related goods or services provided to other airlines at Lanseria Airport are not provided based on unfair, unreasonable or discriminatory terms.”Lanseria concernsThe commission’s primary competition concern was having one entity, Harith, own FlySafair and have a significant stake in Lanseria at the time. The concern was that this might disadvantage other airports, particularly those owned and operated by Airports Company South Africa, a concern that Harith put to bed. Harith and FlySafair in February announced one of the most consequential private equity transactions in recent aviation history, a deal that will see the latter take ownership of about 67% of the domestic market share.The proposed deal allows the airline to comply with South African regulatory ownership rules while integrating air travel into Harith’s broader African transport and logistics portfolio, which includes Lanseria and Traxtion, Africa’s largest private rail operator.Harith owns about 37% of Lanseria. The company has been pursuing a deal to buy an airline for several years, an interest that picked up when the government sought to bring in private sector investors in South African Airways (SAA) and a consortium linked with Harith emerged as the preferred bidder.The SAA deal collapsed in 2024, when the Takatso consortium walked away from the deal. Harith then pivoted its attention to FlySafair.Since bursting onto the scene in 2014 with just two aircraft operating between Johannesburg and Cape Town, FlySafAir now boasts a fleet of more than 30 jets.The ownership makeup of the airline came under scrutiny in 2022 when two industry competitors lodged complaints with the national and international regulatory authorities over the ownership structure of ASL Aviation Holdings, owners of FlySafair.In establishing an outfit called Safair in 2014, ASL set up a shareholding structure whereby 25% remained in its direct possession and the remaining 75% was held locally by two other shareholders.The local shareholders consist of Safair Investment Trust, which holds 50%, and an employee share scheme designed by ASL to ensure compliance with local ownership requirements. It has a 25% stake.In essence, ASL has 75% ownership of FlySafair, while local laws demand 75% local ownership of any resident airline.Harith chair Tshepo Mahloele is also chair of Arena Holdings, publishers of Business Day.