Civil Aviation Authority

In March 2025 the CAA became the market surveillance authority for drones, charged with monitoring and enforcing new product standards, improving safety and supporting the sector’s growth. But it has already been adapting to the rapid growth in drone usage, introducing its online UK Specific Operation Risk Assessment system, and changing rules relating to the flight of drones beyond the sight of the operator to facilitate infrastructure and security operations. It has published a roadmap to enabling regular and routine drone operations across society by 2027.

The CAA is working with a number of UK companies on developing technology and infrastructure to support the use of hydrogen fuel in aviation. Its hydrogen sandbox has enabled selected organisations – including Rolls-Royce, Regional & City Airports and Oxford University – to test products and services in collaboration with the regulator. Its strategic objectives for the current financial year include developing regulations to safely enable hydrogen-powered flight.

With new powers under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act (DMCCA), the CAA – which, along with the CMA, enforces general consumer law in the aviation sector – is reassessing its consumer enforcement guidance and prioritisation principles. It is also continuing to argue for new consumer powers akin to those already available to some other consumer-facing regulators, and it has been reported that the government is planning to give the CAA greater powers to enforce consumer protection. Says CMS partner Gwen Edwards: “The significant enhancement of the CAA’s consumer enforcement powers under the DMCCA will allow the CAA to be much more effective in securing consumers’ rights. The question is whether it will be willing to challenge airlines, when most airlines flying to and from the UK are not registered here, and the government will not want the CAA to create a enforcement policy that disincentivises investment in the UK aviation sector.”

The CAA became the UK’s space regulator in 2021, overseeing entities including launch operators, spaceport operators, range control service providers and satellite/ in-orbit operators. In August 2025, it granted the first ever vertical launch licence to Skyrora, a Scottish company, allowing up to 16 suborbital launches per year from SaxaVord Spaceport in Shetland, as well as a licence to Space Forge in March 2025 for the launch of ForgeStar-1 (the UK’s first in-orbit manufacturing satellite). The Advanced Manufacturing Sector Plan identifies space as one of six priority sectors, and commits to implementing the recommendations of the 2024 Space Regulatory Review. As the UK’s space regulator, the CAA will be responsible for implementing these reforms, including simplifying licensing, enabling novel mission types, and ensuring proportionate, responsive regulation to support growth and innovation in the sector.

The CAA is reviewing the regulatory framework for capacity expansion at Heathrow Airport, looking at how to ensure the efficient and timely delivery of expansion plans while protecting the interests of consumers. It is consulting on the regulatory treatment of the early costs of capacity expansion and has published a working paper outlining potential regulatory models and evaluation criteria for expansion, with a consultation on a shortlist of possible regulatory models expected in the spring and a final report anticipated in the summer. The review is intended to align with the government’s timetable for updating the Airports National Policy Statement.