UKADS Key topics

NERL is the only organisation in the UK with the required level of resources and design expertise to deliver the UKADS to the timescales that modernisation requires. Other options were considered but rejected, as explained in the consultation document and consultation response document.

Through NERL’s air traffic services licence. The government is laying has laid two Statutory Instruments in June to facilitate this. The CAA is conducting a series of consultations on proposals to modify NERL’s air traffic services licence to provide for the delivery of the UKADS. The first of these (published November 2024) contained illustrative proposals on the nature of the licence modifications, scale of costs and charging arrangements that could be used to support the implementation of a UKADS. The second consultation (published June 2025) sets out initial proposals for modifying NERL’s licence to support the implementation of the UKADS, including greater detail on the funding model. Following these consultations, the DfT and the CAA will conduct the statutory consultations, in accordance with the Transport Act 2000, setting out their final proposals to modify both the terms and the conditions (respectively) of NERL’s licence to provide for the implementation and provision of the UKADS.

The initial scope of the UKADS will be to modernise the complex airspace around London. Subject to the UKADS’s capability and capacity, the DfT and CAA may expand this scope in the future.

The UKADS, acting collaboratively, will take on all aspects of each of the current “London cluster” airspace change proposals, except for the safety case, implementation of the change (or associated provisions of air traffic services) and potentially some elements of stakeholder consultation and engagement, with the UKADS having overall responsibility.

In a second phase, developed in parallel but necessarily on a longer timeframe, we could establish a UKADS responsible for progressing all airspace change proposals in the UK. This is expected to require primary legislation and would be conditional on a review of the success of the first phase and further consultation.

The CAA and DfT consulted jointly on proposals in autumn 2024 to gather views on the proposed establishment of the UKADS. The consultation is now closed, and we have published a Consultation Response Document summarising the feedback received and confirming the next steps. The response sets out the rationale for the decision to move forward with the UKADS, as well as our initial implementation plans. We are now working with NERL with the shared ambition for the UKADS to be up and running by the end of 2025.

Subject to consultation on the detail, we will reform the funding of airspace change proposals UK-wide by creating a new UK Airspace Design Charge, which will:

• meet the efficient costs of NERL to provide an airspace design service through the UKADS, and
• create a new UK Airspace Design Support Fund to cover relevant costs of the sponsors of eligible UK airport airspace change proposals that are outside the scope of UKADS.

The statutory processes for this would include further detailed consultation with those potentially affected by the new charge, including on the level of the charge.

We have published a policy paper about this.

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

Some changes to the regulatory framework, including the CAA’s CAP 1616 airspace change process, will be needed for the UKADS to function effectively, and there are potential opportunities to go further in streamlining airspace regulatory processes more generally. By September 2025, the CAA and DfT expect to consult on a package of changes that will make the process for airspace design decisions more proportionate, while retaining the important principles of a transparent, evidence-based process that involves impacted stakeholders. This package will include:

• new or revised guidance that will streamline and simplify the airspace change process both specifically for the UKADS and more widely
• changes to the airspace change masterplan ‘acceptance’ process (CAP 2156a/b)
• modifications to the government’s Air Navigation Guidance and Air Navigation Directions.

The UKADS will still be required, as is the case now, to take airspace designs through the CAP 1616 process, including requirements to engage with local communities and factor in environmental considerations.

The airspace around London is the most complex airspace in the UK. Consequently, its modernisation will unlock more benefits, such as more capacity, reduced noise per flight and decarbonisation. Despite a collective will to deliver, the current model for delivering modernisation of London airspace appears increasingly unworkable. Modernisation of London airspace is at a natural transition point where the UKADS can take on the airspace change proposals currently progressing through the CAA’s CAP 1616 airspace change process and add the most value through a single airspace design.

Airspace modernisation is needed irrespective of a third runway at Heathrow. A third runway would require an airspace change proposal to be developed, consulted on and considered in line with the CAA’s airspace change process (CAP 1616). The UKADS could have a role in ensuring that this is delivered effectively and in a coordinated way with the rest of the London airspace.

The DfT and CAA may expand the scope of the UKADS in the future, as explained in the consultation. For example, this could be another cluster of the airspace change masterplan. In the meantime, in the interests of fairness, we are reforming how airspace change is paid for, through a new Airspace Design Support Fund. Instead of wholly funding an airspace change proposal themselves, some airport sponsors progressing airspace change proposals that are not in scope of the UKADS may be eligible to claim certain costs back from the fund.

In line with the ‘user pays’ principle, airlines are key beneficiaries from airspace changes that the UKADS will progress and they will therefore largely bear the costs of the UKADS. In future, if and when the scope of the UKADS widens to include airspace change proposals relating to other parts of the aviation sector (such as General Aviation, drones, spaceflight or electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft), the funding model will be correspondingly adjusted in line with the ‘user pays’ principle.

There is currently a shortage of skilled airspace designers. Therefore, no matter how the role of specialist consultancies changes once the UKADS is up and running, demand for specialist staff will continue. The UKADS could potentially contract existing aviation consultants for some work, while still acting as coordinator to ensure consistency and quality. Some consultancy work contracted by airports would diminish as the UKADS builds its activities, thus releasing expertise that the UKADS could potentially recruit.

We have published a policy paper about UKADS governance and engagement that covers this.