Airspace modernisation: Consultation on draft guidance for the UK Airspace Design and Coordination Services

Overview

In March 2025, the government decided to reform the UK’s approach to modernising the design of UK airspace by introducing a UK Airspace Design Service (UKADS), which will be provided by NATS (En Route) plc (NERL). The initial scope of the UKADS will be to modernise the complex airspace around London, by consolidating existing airspace change proposals within the London cluster of the airspace change masterplan into a single airspace change proposal.

NERL would continue to provide a coordination service for those strategically important, interdependent airspace change proposals that are outside the scope of the UKADS (and which would continue to be sponsored by the airport or air navigation service provider concerned). We are calling this role the UK Airspace Coordination Service (UKACS).

This consultation is seeking views on draft CAA guidance with which NERL should comply when providing both the UKADS and UKACS. We have published the consultation document as CAP 3158.

This guidance is pursuant to proposed new conditions that will be included in NERL’s air traffic services licence and to strategic objectives for NERL’s UKADS and UKACS published by the Secretary of State.

The draft guidance is set out at Annex A to CAP 3158, our consultation document, in four chapters:

• Chapter 1: Overview
• Chapter 2: Strategic delivery plan
• Chapter 3: Stakeholder engagement plan
• Chapter 4: Advisory Board.

The final version of the guidance would be referenced by NERL’s licence.

Annex A includes proposals for some new governance and external oversight arrangements of NERL’s provision of the UKADS and UKACS (see Chapter 4 Advisory Board). In addition, in Annex B to CAP 3158, our consultation document, we are also proposing that the scope of existing Department for Transport/CAA governance arrangements should be revised so as also to provide governance of NERL’s provision of the UKADS and UKACS (the Airspace Modernisation Strategy governance structure). Once finalised after consultation, the CAA will republish this as part of CAP 1711. Because NERL’s delivery of the UKADS and UKACS is proposed to be a condition of its air traffic services licence, ultimately the existing licence enforcement mechanisms will also apply.

We welcome views on both Annex A and Annex B.

Who this consultation is for

This consultation is for stakeholders with an interest in airspace change proposals that are currently in scope of the airspace change masterplan. This includes sponsors of relevant airspace changes (airports and air navigation service providers), as well as those affected by the airspace change proposals.

We have tried to keep technical terminology to a minimum as we appreciate that we have a wide range of stakeholders who will have an interest in the proposals.

Background

The CAA has published CAP 3156, Modernising the way we do airspace design: information relevant to the CAA autumn 2025 consultations concerning airspace design. This explains proposed future models for developing airspace change proposals and associated consultations. We encourage stakeholders to read this explainer document and to respond to the associated consultations as well (see the links under 'Related' below).

You can read more about the background to the UKADS on the CAA’s dedicated webpages www.caa.co.uk/ukads. This also includes links to consultations on the UKADS concept and NERL licence modifications.

How to respond to this consultation

The consultation will close at 23.59 on 12 January 2026 (a consultation period of eight weeks). We cannot commit to taking into account comments received after this date.

You can submit your comments by following the 'Share your views' link below and answering the five consultation questions, which require a mix of multiple-choice and free-text answers.

Our strong preference is that you complete the online consultation. While we will take account of responses that are submitted by other means, we ask that you arrange any such submission using the subject headings of the consultation document. Otherwise we will not be able to analyse your submission in the same way that we analyse the online responses.

Publication of responses

We will assume that all responses can be published on the CAA website. When you complete the online consultation there will be an option for you to hide your identity or refuse publication. (In any event, your email address will not be published.) In the interests of transparency, we hope you will not refuse publication. If you do send us a separate submission and it includes any material that you do not want us to publish, please also send us a redacted version that we can publish.

Our starting point will be that we expect to publish any response in its entirety. We will use moderation in order to remove any unsuitable content, but not as a general means of censoring or filtering responses. Subject to the permissions given by the sender, we will publish an unredacted response with the name of the sender as long as it:

a) is not malicious or offensive in nature, and does not constitute a personal attack on a person’s character
b) doesn’t break the law; this includes potentially libellous (defamatory) material concerning third parties, condoning illegal activity, and breaching copyright
c) doesn’t incite hatred on the basis of race, religion, gender, nationality or sexuality or other personal characteristic
d) doesn’t include swearing, hate-speech or obscenity
e) doesn’t reveal personal details, such as private addresses, phone numbers, email addresses or other online contact details.

Irrespective of any text we redact for the purposes of publishing a response, the full content of any response will still be assessed for the purpose of the relevant analysis of responses, whether it relates to the consultation or other feedback.

Please note that your response will be shared with relevant employees of any consultancy firms that we may contract to assist with the consultation.

You should be aware that information sent to and therefore held by us is subject to legislation that may require us to disclose it, even if you have asked us not to (such as the Freedom of Information Act and Environmental Information Regulations).

Therefore, if you do decide to send information to us but ask that this be withheld from publication via redacted material, please explain why, as this will help us to consider our obligations to disclose or withhold this information should the need arise. Please see our general privacy notice.