Alina Nosek (Head of Aviation)

The draft Civil Aviation Bill had its first reading in January 2012 and sets out the Government’s plans to modernise the regulatory frameworks for airports in the UK and also the role of the CAA. 

The proposed changes are:

• The CAA will be able to determine which airports should be designated for price cap regulations.
• The CAA will have the power to impose licensing conditions which it considers necessary to safeguard passengers’ interests.
• The CAA will be required to tailor the licensing conditions to specific circumstances faced by individual airports.  Therefore, the CAA will be able to reduce the scope of economic regulations imposed on individual airports if necessary.
• The CAA will now have a single primary duty requiring it to carry out its functions in a manner which promotes the interests of users of air transport services.  This includes:
  • great flexibility to set target performance levels at major airports
  • to encourage investment in facility improvements
  • to promote the provision of information on airlines and airport performance to passengers and other airport users
• The CAA will be able to enforce compliance under the new legislation and will be given the power to impose significant fines – up to 10% of an airport’s annual turnover – for breach of licensing conditions.
• Certain aviation security functions will be transferred from the Secretary of State to the CAA and these will include the monitoring and enforcement of EU domestic aviation requirements.
• The CAA will charge the aviation industry for its activities.

The intention is that the first licences under the new regime will be introduced on 1 April 2014.