GAAC Outlines Plan to Save Threatened UK Airfields

The General Aviation Awareness Council (GAAC) has proposed a fourth category of land to the UK Government that would aid in balanced economic development – through the recognition of valuable ‘Infrastructure’. Without an ‘Infrastructure’ category, suggests the GAAC, airfields would be deemed ‘Protected’, rendering them unable to evolve and become commercially viable, and leaving them even more vulnerable to housing developers.

The Council reasons that small airfields complement future flight projects such as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), including commercial drone deliveries and air taxis. It also highlights that more environmentally sustainable ‘green’ aircraft powered by electricity, hydrogen (or multi-fuels like used cotton) are either already UK licensed or about to be. 

Aerodromes constitute “a huge resource – contributing to connectivity and transport needs, facilitating business aviation, flying training, STEM-related training and jobs, supporting emergency services and charities, offering recreational, leisure and sporting facilities,” commented John Gilder, GAAC Vice-Chairman and Chairman of the APPG-GA’s Airfields Working Group.  “Most importantly in the current context, they help ensure connectivity in key locations for future infrastructure needs – in the ‘transport, digital, energy and utility’ sectors.”

The GAAC warns that the UK could repeat mistakes similar to those that led to the closure of many railway branch lines in the 1960s. Identifying key aerodrome sites as ‘strategically Important Infrastructure’ that are part of a valued Network of Airfields could help to prevent such wholesale destruction.