In a bid to reassure customers that air travel during the World Cup will be affordable, Kulula has "challenged" other local airlines to lower their airfares.

On its website, Kulula.com, the airline's marketing executive, Heidi Brauer, says: "It's our policy rather to add more flights than to rely on pushing prices up. If you compare the prices of domestic flights during the tournament, our prices are the lowest, finish and klaar."

The airline - which has been implicated in claims of ticketing collusion alongside SAA and BA/Comair, which includes Kulula and British Airways domestic, 1Time, SA Airlink, SA Express and Mango - asks consumers to "compare fares for themselves and we challenge all airlines to reduce their prices".

The airline, on the website, compares its prices with those of its competitors. Giving examples, Kulula offers flights from Lanseria to Durban for R519, comparing that to the price of a competitor from OR Tambo International, Johannesburg, to Durban for R1199.

"We have challenged all South African airlines to lower their airfares during the World Cup."

Kulula states that it has "acquired an additional 28000 seats, on our new Boeing 737-800 aircraft, just to cater for our World Cup fans. Plans have already been put into place to provide an additional 15000 seats, if demand for World Cup seats grows."

• The Competition Commission is investigating allegations of collusion on ticket prices for flights during the 2010 Fifa World Cup.

Brauer says on the website: "The World Cup should not be seen as a 'get rich quick' scheme. One quick visit to our site will settle any remaining unnecessary worries about World Cup pricing. Now we can all concentrate on putting on the greatest show on Earth."

Transport Minister S'bu Ndebele said last week that his department is "on track to help South Africa deliver a successful 2010 Fifa World Cup". He denied that some airports were not ready for the numbers of fans expected. He was speaking in Pretoria about the readiness for the tournament of the national transport system.