At Stage 1, Heathrow established the need and scope for the Airspace Change Proposal, setting out the objectives of our proposal and identifying any issues or opportunities.
At this stage, we produced a Statement of Need to demonstrate why the change is required and worked with key stakeholders to develop design principles for our airspace change. These principles summarise the key priorities and objectives that Heathrow seeks to achieve through the airspace change, and they help the airspace designers create and compare the different flight path options.
Design Principles include policy, safety, environmental and operational factors. Some are core requirements that we need to include, such as Government policy, but there are other options and trade-offs to choose between when designing future flight paths. The Design Principles must also consider the local context for the airspace change to take account of priorities within the area affected.
Heathrow developed design principles for this airspace change in collaboration with representatives from local communities and other stakeholders. Our design principles are shown below.
The CAA passed us at the Stage 1 Gateway in March 2022.
Final Design Principles |
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| Our new airspace design must | Be safe |
| Remain in accordance with the CAA's published Airspace Modernisation Strategy and any current or future plans associated with it and all other relevant UK policy, legislation and regulatory standards (for example, Air Navigation Guidance). This includes preventing any worsening of local air quality due to emissions from Heathrow’s aircraft movements, to remain within local authorities’ limits | |
| Use noise efficient operational practices to limit and, where possible, reduce adverse impacts from aircraft noise | |
| Reduce the contribution to climate change from CO2 emissions and other greenhouse gas emissions arising from Heathrow’s aircraft activities | |
| Enable Heathrow to make the most operationally efficient and resilient use of its existing two runways, to maximise benefits to the airport, airlines and cargo handlers, passengers, and local communities | |
| And should also | Provide predictable and meaningful respite to those affected by noise from Heathrow's movement |
| Seek to avoid overflying the same communities with multiple routes including those to/from other airports | |
| Contribute to minimising the negative impacts of night flights | |
| Keep the number of people who experience an increase in noise from the future airspace design to a minimum | |
| Keep the total number of people who experience noise from the future airspace design to a minimum | |
| Enable the efficiency of other airspace users' operations | |
| Minimise the impact to all stakeholders from future changes to Heathrow’s airspace | |
At Stage 2, we developed a comprehensive list of arrival and departure route options which addressed the Statement of Need and aligned with our design principles.
We shared this list of options with stakeholders who were engaged with at Stage 1. Feedback from this engagement was then used to further develop and refine our options.
We then conducted a design principle evaluation to assess the baseline scenarios and design options against the design principles.
At the end of Stage 2, we produced an Initial Options Appraisal, which evaluated the potential route options to enable us to identify which options should be taken forward in the process, based on criteria such as safety, efficiency, and environmental impacts.
The CAA passed us at the Stage 2 Gateway in July 2024.
At Stage 3, airports are required to prepare and launch a public consultation. This is the key stage of the airspace change process where we will seek feedback to better understand stakeholders’ views about the impacts of our Airspace Change Proposal. This feedback will help us make informed decisions regarding the proposal ahead of our submission.
Heathrow recently started Stage 3 of the process, however we do not expect to reach the public consultation stage until at least 2027.
At Stage 4, we will make any final adjustments to our airspace design and produce a Final Options Appraisal that incorporates stakeholder feedback and provides a final impact assessment of the chosen design option.
At the end of Stage 4, we will prepare and submit the final Airspace Change Proposal to the CAA.
At Stage 5, the CAA will evaluate our final Airspace Change Proposal and make a decision on whether or not to approve the final Airspace Change Proposal.
At this stage, the CAA will produce a formal Decision Document outlining its reasons for approval or rejection, or any modifications that are required to the proposal.
Stage 6 is where the approved final airspace change is implemented. At this Stage, Heathrow will prepare changes to air traffic control operational procedures and inform stakeholders about the outcome of the Airspace Change Proposal.
We will also carry out safety checks and begin post-implementation monitoring to identify any potential issues with the airspace design and what steps can be taken to address these.
At Stage 7, the CAA carries out a post implementation review to analyse the impacts of the airspace change in order to ensure it has produced the intended outcomes.
Airspace change is the process through which flight paths, controlled airspace boundaries and controlled airspace classifications can be changed.
The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), which is responsible for the regulation of aviation safety in the UK, decides whether to approve proposed changes to the design of the UK’s airspace. The CAA evaluates the progress of every Airspace Change Proposal via a detailed process set out in the Civil Aviation Authority’s CAP1616: The Process for Changing the Notified Airspace Design.
Heathrow’s current departure and arrival procedures were designed decades ago, at a time when aircraft and navigation were much less sophisticated than today. Through the introduction of airspace modernisation at Heathrow, the airport will make use of modern navigation technology to enable better aircraft performance, reduce delays and manage traffic in ways that mitigate, where possible, the impact on local communities.
Aircraft are more efficient at altitude, which will help towards decarbonisation of aviation and help to meet the objectives set out in Heathrow 2.0 – Heathrow’s Sustainability Strategy outlining our vision for achieving net zero emissions by 2050 and enhancing quality of life for both employees and neighbouring communities.
Airspace is the invisible infrastructure in the sky which helps aircraft operate safely. This includes the flight paths that aircraft use when taking off and landing, as well as holding patterns used by aircraft when waiting to land.
UK airspace contains a network of corridors, or airways. They link the busy areas of airspace above major airports and are the responsibility of NATS.
Heathrow previously initiated a number of Airspace Change Proposals (ACPs) to address specific airspace issues or constraints. However, these were paused in 2020 so the airport could prioritise recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Since then, Heathrow has progressed with new plans for airspace modernisation. This requires the wholesale redesign of flight paths to and from Heathrow’s existing two runways. As part of this redesign, Heathrow has incorporated, where appropriate, the requirements associated with previous ACPs in order to reduce the complexity of numerous Airspace Change Proposals for our communities.
Heathrow is currently at Stage 3 of the seven-stage CAP1616 process for airspace change.
CAP1616 is a seven-stage process covering how change sponsors, such as Heathrow, should develop Airspace Change Proposals, with a focus on engaging and consulting a wide range of stakeholders, including potentially affected communities, throughout the process.
Airspace modernisation does not mean more flights to and from Heathrow. A planning condition attached to the Terminal 5 decision capped the number of air transport movements (ATMs) per year at 480,000, in 2024 there were 474,029 ATMs. The airspace modernisation process cannot uplift this overall number.
We had previously been progressing the introduction of Easterly Alternation through our existing Airspace Change Proposal for airspace modernisation. However, the dates for implementation of airspace modernisation have been delayed and it will not be possible for us to implement the airspace change in time to meet our commitment to Easterly Alternation. Therefore, we are preparing a separate ACP for the required changes to airspace use associated with Easterly Alternation. This will be carried out under the CAA's CAP1617 process.
Find out more about Easterley alternation
