Minister of State (): My Noble Friend, the
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Transport () has made the
following Ministerial Statement on Monday 30th January 2023.
The Airspace Modernisation Strategy (AMS) refresh, published on
23 January 2023, sets out, through nine elements, the ways and
means of modernising airspace, focussing on the period until the
end of 2040.
The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) must report to the Secretary
of State annually on the delivery of the AMS, through an annual
Progress Report. This report details the progress made by
industry, as well as work the CAA have conducted against each of
the AMS’s elements. For 2022, the Progress Report reports on the
previous AMS’s 15 initiatives.
In total, six of the 15 initiatives are assessed as ‘requiring
attention’, two are on track, one has been implemented and six
initiatives have been assessed as having ‘major issues’.
The Department continues to work with the CAA to ensure greater
progress is made in implementing the airspace modernisation
programme. Ministers are giving the programme the urgent
attention it requires and are committed to delivery of the AMS.
Areas of Progress
Free Route Airspace (Initiative 2) was implemented in Scotland in
2021 and remains on track for deployment in Q1 2023 across
southwest England and Wales. This will see airlines being able to
fly more direct routes in upper airspace reducing aviation’s
carbon emissions and will save CO2 every year equivalent to the
power used by some 3,500 family homes (12,000 tonnes CO2/year).
The Airspace Classification Review (Initiative 10) has made
significant progress with the publication of the findings into
the review of the Cotswold Region. This work has identified where
airspace can be opened up for all airspace users to use (e.g.,
general aviation).
Under the Deployment of Electronic Surveillance Solution
(Initiative 11), DfT and the CAA established the Surveillance
Standards Task Force, developing national, voluntary
specifications for Electronic Conspicuity. This is a key enabler
in the refreshed AMS, bringing together current and new airspace
users, such as drones, in order to promote a safe and integrated
lower airspace.
Areas assessed as having major issues
There are a number of initiatives assessed as having ‘major
issues, in part because of COVID recovery and the complexities of
the airspace changes in the London cluster. However, formal
acceptance of the Airspace Change Organising Group’s (ACOG)
Masterplan Iteration 2 in January 2022 was a critical milestone.
This was enabled in part to £9.2m funding by Government.
Iteration 3 will be published later this year following a number
of public engagement exercises.
Of the six initiatives requiring attention, timescales and
delivery plans have been re-assessed and re-baselined as a result
of publication of the refreshed AMS.
