Reopening Plan - Phased Reopening from Tue 19 May

THIS POST IS FROM 15TH MAY AND HAS BEEN SUPERSEDED - READ OUR CURRENT INFORMATION HERE

On Friday 15th May 2020, the Department for Transport published updated guidance for Recreational General Aviation.

This guidance can be read in full here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-recreational-general-aviation/coronavirus-covid-19-recreational-general-aviation

The government takes the view that Recreational General Aviation is a permissible recreational sport.

This excludes most training flights, as social distancing measures require people not in the same household to maintain 2 metres of separation. While these flights are a key source of income for many aerodromes, they cannot presently be undertaken in a way that reduces the risk of Covid-19 transmission to an acceptable level.

AERODROMES REOPENING

The DfT guidance continues:

The question of whether any individual aerodrome should open (or reopen) is a business decision for aerodrome operators. Aerodrome operators are best placed to decide whether opening is in their best interest, either from a commercial or health and safety standpoint, including their ability to maintain safe socially-distancing consistent with current PHE guidance.

It is also to be expected that some airfields will require time to implement guidance on making their sites Covid-secure, and that there may therefore be delays to reopening.

Whilst we have been planning for reopening over the past few weeks, it has been difficult to finalise those plans until the DfT guidance was published. We are now finalising those plans in light of the guidance.

We have targeted a phased reopening of Blackbushe Airport from Tuesday 19th May 2020, although there will most likely be reduced opening hours, days, and facilities available.

We will publish further details in the next day or two, and look forward welcoming pilots and aircraft back to Blackbushe next week. In the meantime, please be patient, and don’t call us at this time to allows us to focus on reopening!