Review of CAP 1616 Airspace Change process

The CAA’s guidance on the regulatory process for changing the notified airspace design and planned and permanent redistribution of air traffic is detailed within CAP1616. This guidance was first published in December 2017. Three administrative updates have followed since then with the fourth edition of the CAP published in March 2021.

Planned review

On first publication, the CAA committed to undertake a review of CAP1616 process in 2021, three years after its implementation (see paragraph 36). The CAA has started review activity and expects to complete the process in winter 2022.

Factors impacting on review timeline

Our timeline for the review takes into consideration the following factors:

• The impact of Covid–19 on the review
• Evidence base of airspace change proposals on which to conduct the review is smaller than originally envisaged
• The majority of large-scale ACPs were paused due to the pandemic
• The airspace modernisation programme is now starting to remobilise

Approach

Our approach will be aligned to CAP1616 principles on engagement and consultation. It will involve initial stakeholder engagement at a representative level followed by a formal consultation process.

Timeline

Internal workshops

In June 2021, the CAA held some internal workshops in which Airspace Regulators reviewed all stages of the airspace change process as well as the processes governing trials and temporary airspace changes. The outputs from these sessions will inform stakeholder engagement at representative level planned for Autumn 2021. Further internal workshops will be held at key stages of the review.

External workshops

In Autumn 2021 the CAA will hold a series of virtual workshops at which invited stakeholders representing industry including approved procedure design organisations (APDO’s), general aviation and environmental bodies together with community representatives will be asked for their input. The content of the workshops will be informed by the CAA discussions on where amendments could be made to the process or where further guidance could be provided. Invitations will be circulated in the coming weeks.

Public engagement

Our early engagement activities were followed by a public engagement exercise which was launched in November 2021. This provided all our stakeholders with 28-days in which to provide feedback on potential changes or amendments to the CAP1616 process, through an online survey. This survey has now closed. Thank you to those stakeholders who responded to our survey. The CAA will analyse all feedback received and we will publish an engagement summary report setting out our findings.

Consultation

We plan to launch a formal consultation for the CAP1616 review over the course of the Spring/Summer months in 2022. The consultation will be run via the citizen space platform and we will provide an alternative method of response for those stakeholders who are unable to respond using online methods.

Keeping you updated

We will provide updates on the progress of the review via this page. We plan to publish an updated version of the CAP1616 airspace change process in the winter of 2022.