Threads / Creating a UK Airspace Design Service / Airspace modernisation
Policy Paper Published 22 Oct 2024 Department for Transport ↗ View on GOV.UK

Airspace modernisation

Why we need to modernise UK airspace and what we are doing.

Linked documents
▤ Verbatim text from source document

UK airspace is a network routes in the sky above the UK. The basic design of UK airspace hasn’t changed significantly since the 1950s.

The Department for Transport (DfT) and the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) are co-sponsors of a programme to modernise UK airspace. Modernising airspace will:

  • update its structural design
  • change how the systems on which it runs work
  • use new technology to improve how air traffic is integrated and managed

The documents on this page explain:

  • more about what we are doing with airspace modernisation and why we are doing it
  • the potential benefits and issues