As you may be aware, we had been in the process of seeking a broad range of stakeholders’ views on the way in which Aberdeen Airport should progress its part of a UK-wide initiative to modernise the country’s airspace, known as the Airspace Modernisation Strategy (AMS). This process is known as an Airspace Change Proposal (ACP). However, given the outbreak of COVID-19, Aberdeen Airport took the decision in 2020 to postpone this work.
During 2022, Aberdeen Airport was able to recommence its ACP. Since then, we have engaged with our existing stakeholders, in addition to any new relevant stakeholders. We have held a number of workshops and received feedback from a wide range of stakeholder groups.
We submitted our Stage 2 documents to the CAA for assessment in December 2022 and were advised in January that we have successfully passed the gateway. We now intend to begin Stage 3 and start preparing for a full public consultation on our Comprehensive List of Options. A key element of the public consultation is that it takes place when proposals are at a formative stage, so that feedback has the potential to affect the proposals. As such, Aberdeen Airport is expecting the public consultation to take place in early 2024 and will provide updates on this process in advance here.
Aberdeen Airport's Airspace Change Proposal - Statement of Need Update
Aberdeen Airport has recently submitted an updated Statement of Need to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) in relation to its Airspace Change Proposal (ACP). This update reflects changes in the operating environment since the programme’s launch.
Aberdeen Airport’s original Statement of Need referred to meeting the requirements of (EU) 2018/1048 and removing reliance on Perth (PTH) and Aberdeen (ADN) ground-based navigation aids (VORs) due to NATS EnRoute Limited’s (NERL) NAVAID Rationalisation programme. Since submitting the Statement of Need, the UK has withdrawn from the EU, and NERL have notified Aberdeen Airport that there is no longer the intention to withdraw the ADN VOR. The reliance on Perth VORs has already been resolved.
All engagement activities conducted during Stage 2, and the development of our Comprehensive List of Options, have been in accordance with the intentions outlined in the updated Statement of Need which has since been verified by the CAA.
A full copy of the updated Statement can be found on the CAA Portal which can be found via the link to the latest status below.
Airspace Change Programme
You can view the latest status of the project here on the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) website along with all supporting documents. Our Airspace Change Proposal follows the CAA’s CAP1616 guidelines. Read the CAP1616 guidelines.
If you would like to register your interest in the project please provide your contact details below.