This is a reminder that the opportunity to comment on the CAA’s draft Airspace Modernisation Strategy will close at 10am on Monday, 10 September 2018
Details of the strategy and the case for modernisation, including the draft document and a short summary can be found here, where you can also submit your feedback.
What is the Airspace Modernisation Strategy?
In its current state, the design and operation of UK airspace is constraining the growth of commercial aviation and causing delays to passengers. Any constraint on growth should come from the number of runways on the ground, or the restrictions imposed on the use of those runways by the Government or planning authorities as a condition of their use.
The Government and the CAA therefore have a shared objective to ensure that airspace is not a constraint on the growth of commercial aviation. This growth has to be managed to ensure that noise and other environmental impacts are managed in alignment with policy and law, and that other airspace users maintain appropriate access to airspace.
To this end, the Government has tasked the CAA with preparing and maintaining a co-ordinated strategy and plan for the use of UK airspace up to 2040, including its modernisation. This strategy will supersede the existing Future Airspace Strategy, although many of its technical elements are incorporated into the draft strategy.
The Airspace Modernisation Strategy will set out ways in which the CAA’s shared objective will be achieved. This includes the need for a new structural design in some areas of airspace, new operational concepts that govern how aircraft are flown, and what technology is needed to achieve these concepts.
This strategy does not propose any specific airspace changes, but suggests that a roadmap of changes that will be necessary for modernisation should be developed. Any individual airspace changes that are developed either in response to this strategy or for any other reasons will go through the CAA’s airspace change process (as set out in CAP 1616), to include consultation with affected stakeholders which, depending on the circumstances, includes communities on the ground and other airspace users.
What do they need from you?
The CAA published the draft strategy in July for public engagement, so that any interested stakeholders could offer feedback on the document – including its approach and the initiatives it sets out as the primary ways to deliver modernisation – before it is finalised and delivered to the Secretary of State in December 2018.
More details of the strategy and the case for modernisation can be found here, where you can also provide feedback.
If you would like to discuss anything about how to respond, please don’t hesitate to email them at airspace.policy@caa.co.uk. They will no longer accept responses after 10am on Monday, 10 September 2018.
