Access through the Manchester and Liverpool CAS

[John Brady]

The LAA Airspace Team is working with the CAA and the ATC managers at Liverpool and Manchester to improve access and safety for aircraft transiting the area north/south under VFR.

Presently the low level route offers uncontrolled VFR access but the terrain is increasingly built up and the altitude restriction makes it necessary to fly at low level.

It appears that for at least part of the route, the adjacent controlled airspace is not needed and the route could be widened or parts of the CTR could be returned to Class G. It might also be useful to publish, on VFR charts, preferred VFR access routes through controlled airspace to encourage pilots to consider to take that option.

Please give us your views on this so we can understand what you want and see if we can get it for you. Views on this thread please.

[Nigel Hitchman]

It would appear there is quite a lot of airspace that could be given back. I wonder if the Liverpool airspace is still there from the original airport which had 3 runways, rather than the new single 09/27 operation. I cant really see why they need any of the area north of the M62 to the west of Burtonwood to be controlled airspace below 1500ft. similarly anything south of an east-west line drawn thru the middle of R311 approximately.
Similarly I would think the northern boundary of the Manchester CTR could be drawn between Stretton VRP and Sale Water VRP a couple of miles south of its current boundary. The south western corner of the CTR also seems to be extreemly far away from the airfield, almost twice the distance as compared to the distance from East Midlands airport to the edge of its CTR. perhaps the boundary should be Jodrell bank to Knutsford services to Stretton to make it easy to work out.
This would then make it possible to just keep to the west of the M6 once south of the Thelwall viaduct making the navigation much easier, so the low level not being so much of a problem.
I dont see why the corridor couldnt be 1500ft, again compared to East Midlands, an aircraft can fly at 1500ft the same distance away from East Midlands as the corridor is from Liverpool.

[James Chan]

Would it be possible to see if any Class A airspace in the area could return to a lower classification of controlled airspace (e.g. Class C?) to permit VFR transit flights at higher altitudes?

Many airports abroad with similar or greater numbers of traffic movements don't have any Class A at all.