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When a developer (e.g. an airport owner / operator) wishes an airport to increase capacity by 10 million passengers or 10,000 air cargo movements they must first go through a process to obtain an Order for Development Consent or DCO.

A DCO is, in effect, planning permission for Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIPs). As part of the process for obtaining a DCO, the developer / DCO promoter is required to engage with the CAA concerning our statutory duties, such as those around safety, economic regulation and/or airspace change.

This page contains information on our engagement with recent applications for airport-related DCOs.

The CAA is prescribed as a statutory consultee who must be consulted on all proposed applications for development consent under the 2008 Act relating to an airport, or which are likely to affect an airport or its current or future operation. The CAA’s statutory consultee role is set out in the Airport National Policy Statement (ANPS) .

While the CAA has had this statutory function since the 2008 Act came into force, the CAA has only been engaged as a statutory consultee on applications relating to airport development in the past couple of years.

Currently, the CAA is engaged with the following DCO applications:

As a statutory consultee, the CAA is expected to provide assistance to the Planning Inspectorate (PINS). PINS examine the application (hence they are known as the Examining Authority) and make a recommendation to the Secretary of State for Transport (the SoS) who is the ultimate decision-maker.

The CAA is required to assist PINS and the SoS in considering whether any impediments to the applicant’s development proposals, insofar as they relate to the CAA’s functions, are capable of being properly managed. Specifically, the CAA is required to provide assurance that it sees no insurmountable impediments in each of our relevant regulatory domains (Airspace Change, Economic Regulation and Aerodrome and ATM Safety).

It may be that on certain applications only some of these functions are engaged. We will consider this on an application by application basis.

DCO charging scheme

The CAA charges for work that it carries out outside of its usual regulatory processes. The CAA recognises that the application process is ‘front-loaded’ and, generally, requires significant engagement by the application with statutory consultees well in advance of an application to PINS.

This engagement is necessary whether the potential application ultimately proceeds to apply for a DCO or not. As a result, charges will be payable for any work carried out by the CAA both during the pre-application stage and once any application has been made.

On receipt of a confirmation from a potential applicant of their intention to prepare and submit a relevant application, we will invoice the proposed DCO applicant to pay a charge of £50,000, payable on demand, before any work is undertaken.

Thereafter, the CAA will invoice quarterly in arrears up to a maximum of £350,000 for any year, or part of the year, during which the CAA is engaged in work in support of a potential application.

More information about our DCO Charging Scheme can be found in our Scheme of Charges.

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