Creating a UK Airspace Design Service (UKADS)

We are consulting on a proposal to create a UK Airspace Design Service (UKADS) as a single guiding mind to coordinate and sponsor future airspace changes. This consultation asks about the plans for the UKADS, including the role, scope and funding model, as well as other policy and regulatory considerations.

This is a crucial part of delivering airspace modernisation and securing the benefits that this can bring.

Following significant stakeholder engagement, the Department for Transport and the UK Civil Aviation Authority have developed proposals to:

• create an ‘initial operating model’ for UKADS – UKADS1
• consider detailed policy and legislative options for a longer term ‘end state operating model’ for UKADS – UKADS2

UKADS1 would be set up as quickly as practical to focus on the complex London airspace region, alongside any airspace change proposals deemed a short-term priority by the co-sponsors.

UKADS2 could ultimately become the only body responsible for changes to the design of UK airspace. Given the significant lead in time for developing this model, it would be subject to further consultation in the future.

This project is about airspace design. We are not planning to fundamentally change who manages the airspace or initiates airspace changes. That will remain for the most part with airports and air navigation service providers, who know their local stakeholders’ interests best. The proposal is that the UKADS takes on most aspects of the airspace change proposal, exceptions being the safety case, implementation, and certain aspects of stakeholder consultation. 

Accompanying this consultation is a regulatory impact assessment of the potential impacts of the proposals. You should read this together with the consultation document, which you will find on the CAA website.

The CAA has launched a complementary consultation which explains how elements of the proposals set out in the UKADS consultation that are relevant to the economic regulation of NATS (En Route) plc could be implemented through modifications to its air traffic services licence. The consultation is open from 21 November 2024 until 9 January 2025.

No final decisions have yet been made, including on the key question of who might take on this role. 

Airspace modernisation will benefit UK consumers through greater system capacity and better resilience to disruption. Crucially, it will help UK aviation reduce its environmental impacts, contributing to achieving net zero greenhouse-gas emissions by 2050.

Unlike in most other countries, UK airspace design is today delivered via a complex model, where multiple airports and air navigation service providers individually sponsor and fund airspace change proposals. This puts at risk the ability to accommodate increasing demand for access to UK airspace and innovative new technologies such as drones.