UK seeks to streamline airspace redesign

LONDON - "Important piece of national infrastructure": The UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has today a consultation on reforms to the airspace change process, a key part of Britains’s wider programme to modernise airspace.

Most of the UK airspace was mapped in the 1950. Fewer delays and reduced bottlenecks could help millions of passengers each year and deliver economic growth as the UK Civil Aviation Authority and Department for Transport unveil new plans to modernise UK airspace.

A new consultation process outlines proposals to streamline and improve the timeliness of how airspace proposals are developed and decisions are made, "while ensuring the process remains transparent and evidence-based," the CAA said. The regulator is seeking views from a wide range of stakeholders on these proposals. 

"Airspace is one of the UK’s most important pieces of national infrastructure," CAA executive director Rob Bishton said. "If we want our aviation system to grow in line with planning system decisions, be resilient, compete internationally, and adapt to new technologies, the way we manage and modernise that airspace must also evolve."

More capacity, more resilience

Modernised airspace designs will improve the overall capacity of this key national infrastructure to safely deliver airport capacity limits established in planning decisions, strengthen the resilience of aviation operations, whilst taking account of the government’s environmental objectives. "In time modernisation will facilitate safe integration of new and innovative types of aircraft with other airspace users," CAA said.

The consultation will close on 18 December 2025. Details and information on how to respond are made available on the Civil Aviation Authority’s Citizen Space platform.