CCS conducts public consultation on revised Guidance Note for Passenger Airline alliance agreements

27 March 2026

The Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore (“CCS”) conducted a public consultation on its updated Passenger Airline Guidance Note for alliance agreements between airlines (“PAGN 2026”) from 25 February 2026 to 11 March 2026. The revised PAGN 2026 will supersede the Passenger Airline Guidance Note published in 2018.

CCS has received and assessed a number of passenger airline alliance agreements (“Agreements”) since the Competition Act 2004 came into force, of which 61% were cleared by CCS unconditionally and 39% were cleared with conditions. All these Agreements were voluntarily notified to CCS for a decision. In view of the increasing number of passenger airline alliance agreements notified to CCS for decision, CCS has issued PAGN 2026 with a focus on the airline industry in order to better assist airlines in considering their notification to CCS and further streamline the assessment process. In doing so, CCS seeks to provide greater clarity on CCS’ commitment deliberation and facilitate a more expedient review process moving forward.

Proposed updates to PAGN 2026

The proposed updates are designed to streamline CCS’ review process while maintaining the rigour of its assessment. The main updates include:

  • the introduction of a clearer process by way of a streamlined three-step approach for all airline alliance notifications, with specific milestones to help airlines understand when to consider initiating commitment discussions with CCS and when to finalise commitments for market testing;
  • outlining CCS’ key considerations that the airlines should consider when formulating their commitments for CCS’ deliberation, including whether airlines should explore other forms of commitments apart from capacity
    (e.g. price commitments) and other relevant factors (e.g. growth factor,
    non-fulfilment period, and firewalls) when designing their capacity commitments; and
  • setting out CCS’ approach to defining relevant market(s) and evaluating net economic benefits for airline alliance agreements.

Reference materials

The following materials are available on the CCS website www.ccs.gov.sg: