UK regulator updates rules for airspace changes

LONDON - The UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has finalised a package of improvements designed to clarify the airspace change process for airports, air navigation service providers and those affected by airspace change.

The revised airspace change process, known as CAP1616, has been published October 2023 and will come into force on 2 January 2024. "Further associated guidance will be published in due course," the CAA said.

The regulators’s improvements focus on "simplification, clarification, and proportionality" of how the requirements of the process are applied to individual airspace change proposals depending on their size, scale and impact.

"Airspace change affects many communities across the country, so it is important that the process for proposing changes is clear, simple and proportionate in how it is applied," Jon Round, Head of Air Space, Aerodromes and Air Traffic Management at the CAA said.

The way the UK Civil Aviation Authority makes airspace decisions is not changing, but the updated guidance will make the airspace change process easier to follow and sets out the requirements of the stages and gateways needed to progress an airspace change proposal.