Competition watchdog clears Singapore Airlines and Malaysia  Airlines codeshare

Singapore’s competition watchdog, the Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore (CCCS) has granted its conditional approval for the proposed commercial cooperation between Singapore Airlines (SIA) and Malaysia Airlines (MAS). The cooperation agreement between the carriers was given the green light by the CCCS on July 7, 2025, after the authority carried out a full review of the implications of any potential tie-up.

The CCCS is a statutory board of the Ministry of Trade and Industry that administers and enforces the Competition Act 2004 and the Consumer Protection (Fair Trading) Act 2003 to guard against anti-competitive activities and unfair trade practices.

The proposed cooperation will see the two airlines work together on various areas of their businesses, including scheduling, pricing, sales and marketing, and other commercial areas. It will also see the expansion of the parties’ existing codeshare agreement, which importantly includes the shuttle service that runs between Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KUL) and Singapore-Changi Airport.

GCMap.comThe process leading to the latest announcement kicked off on 24 March 2023, when the CCCS received an application from the applicant airlines regarding whether the proposed cooperation would be an anti-competitive agreement under Singapore’s competition laws. Subsequently, on November 3, 2023, the CCCS received a further submission from the applicants that the scope of the proposed cooperation would be limited to the applicants’ full-service airlines, namely Singapore Airlines and Malaysia Airlines, and not their related budget carriers, Scoot and Firefly, respectively.

In a statement issued on July 7, 2025, the CCCS said the airlines had submitted a set of proposed commitments to address the commission’s concerns over price and capacity coordination that could restrict competition on the Singapore-Kuala Lumpur (and vice versa) route. These commitments included that each airline would maintain its weekly seat capacity levels at existing levels before the proposed cooperation, to propose an increase in capacity levels upon meeting certain performance targets only, to report operational data of their low =cost carrier’s on the SIN-KUL route and vice versa annually and allow the appoint an independent auditor to monitor their compliance with these commitments.

“Taking market developments into account, including the impending permanent cessation by Jetstar Asia Airways, CCCS accepted the proposed commitments as being sufficient to address its competition concerns arising from the proposed cooperation,” the commission stated.

Markus Mainka / ShutterstockCCCS noted that no concerns were raised by industry stakeholders during the consultation period, which ran between February 11, 2025, to March 4, 2025. The chief executive of the CCCS, Alvin Koh, commented that such joint ventures could improve connectivity and offer more choices for travellers.

“The proposed commitments offered by Singapore Airlines and Malaysia Airlines allow for flexibility to react to market developments and ensure that more flights will be added along the Singapore-Kuala Lumpur route as travel demand increases, which would translate to more travel options and better prices for passengers in the long run,” he said. Koh added that CCCS would continue to monitor developments in the sector to ensure competition delivers positive outcomes for consumers.

Markus Mainka / ShutterstockMore about the SIN-KUL route

A 2024 report published by air travel intelligence company OAG says Singapore to Kuala Lumpur was the world’s fourth busiest international air route with an average of  84 flights every day between the two cities, equating to one flight departing every 17 minutes. The flight time along the 184-mile route (295km) is around 50 minutes. , The route saw 5.3 million passengers travel in total in 2024, according to OAG.

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