Australian Airspace Policy Statement (AAPS) 2010

Under Section 8 of the Airspace Act 2007, the Minister for the Department of Infrastructure and Transport, the Hon Anthony Albanese MP, is responsible for making the Australian Airspace Policy Statement. The Statement provides guidance to the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA), as the airspace regulator, on the administration of Australian airspace, together with the legislative and regulatory requirements of the Airspace Act 2007 and the Airspace Regulations 2007.

A new Statement was released by the Minister in December 2009 and commenced on 1 January 2010.  The Statement reflects the Government’s commitment to aviation safety, with safety of passenger transport services as the first priority in airspace administration.  In this regard, the Statement identifies a number of the Government’s airspace policy objectives including:

• support for the International Civil Aviation Organization’s (ICAO’s) Global Air Traffic Management Operational Plan and use of ICAO’s airspace classifications;
• enhanced air traffic management (ATM) services at regional aerodromes regularly served by passenger transport services, as determined by CASA; and
• effective cooperation between CASA and Australia’s air navigation service providers.

The Statement is available at:

Australian Airspace Policy Statement 2010 [PDF: 190 KB]

Common Risk Management Framework

The Common Risk Management Framework (CRMF) provides high level guidance to Commonwealth aviation agencies—the Department of Infrastructure and Transport; the Department of Defence; the Civil Aviation Safety Authority and Airservices Australia—in conducting their risk management activities without interfering with, or restricting, the performance of their respective roles.

The CRMF lays down the agreed structure and processes to be followed by the aviation agencies and supports a consistent approach to risk management in relation to airspace and air traffic management.

The CRMF has been updated to promote continued improvement in risk management processes and methodologies and requires each agency to maintain a risk management system in conformance with published Australian/New Zealand Risk Management Standards—currently AS/NZS ISO31000:2009.  The current CRMF is available at:

Common Risk Management Framework (CRMF) [PDF: 67 KB]

Key Documents

• Airspace Act 2007
• Airspace Regulations 2007

Contact Information

Mr Jim Wolfe
General Manager
Air Traffic Policy
Department of Infrastructure and Transport
GPO Box 594
CANBERRA CITY   ACT   2601
Phone: (02) 6274 7611
Fax: (02) 6274 7804