Macao’s Legislative Assembly passed the Civil Aviation Activity Law yesterday in a move that will gradually liberalise the local civil aviation sector by replacing the current exclusive concession system with a new licensing regime.
Since 1995, Macao’s flagship carrier Air Macau has held a monopoly over the local market, with no other airlines permitted to operate from the SAR. This is expected to gradually change once the new law comes into effect on 1 February 2026, although the government has not specified when it intends to launch the tenders for the licences, according to media reports.
During yesterday’s Legislative Assembly session, the secretary for transport and public works, Raymond Tam, explained that the opening up of Macao’s civil aviation service would be conducted in a “steady” and “gradual” manner, as this suited the needs of Macao’s small market. Tam stressed that this approach did not mean that the government was “not doing anything or was slowing down the process.”
Legislator Ron Lam, however, expressed concerns about the lack of details concerning air rights and traffic routes that will be issued to future licensees. “If Air Macau has already taken the best traffic rights, what rights will we have left to attract other operators when we open future tenders?” Lam asked.
The president of Macao’s Civil Aviation Authority, Stanley Pun, responded by stating that airlines largely make their decision to operate in a particular location based on the stability of passenger sources and market conditions. He added that his department would take administrative measures “to supervise and manage the distribution of these traffic rights.”
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On the liberalisation of the civil aviation industry, Pun highlighted that the authorities’ intention was not only to protect Air Macao, but to also allow for a more diversified market.
Meanwhile, the authorities also intend to fully liberalise the SAR’s commercial air freight sector, with Tam pointing out that any air cargo company that complies with the Civil Aviation Law and meets international aviation standards will be eligible to apply for a licence to conduct the relevant operations.
Tam mentioned that a number of large air cargo companies had already expressed interest in setting up operations in Macao, adding that he believed that the local air cargo sector had plenty of room for expansion.
Introduced by the government in 2023, the Civil Aviation Activities Law underwent an almost two-year-long deliberation period following its successful first vote.
Plans to end Air Macau’s monopoly can be traced back to 2019 to when the carrier was notified that its exclusive concession would not be extended once it expired in 2020. However, the Covid-19 pandemic rendered these plans moot, forcing the government to further extend the monopoly by an additional three years.
