The CAA has announced the appointment of Tony Rapson, a former Royal Air Force Group Captain, air traffic controller and aviation policy expert, as head of its new General Aviation Unit. Established as a result of the Red Tape Challenge, the GA Unit will be dedicated to more proportionate, effective, regulation that supports and encourages a dynamic General Aviation sector for the UK, and will be operational by April 2014. 

Tony is currently seconded from the CAA to the Department for Transport (DfT) as the UK’s policy lead for the implementation of the Single European Sky legislation. Following a 27 year career in the RAF, including tours in the Ministry of Defence, Air Command Headquarters and as Officer Commanding the London Air Traffic Control Centre (Military), he joined the CAA as an airspace policy expert in 2008.  He was instrumental in the development of the Future Airspace Strategy, in the context of the Single European Sky, before moving to the DfT in 2012 to lead negotiations with the European Commission on this complex and sensitive subject at an economic and politically challenging time. He re-joins CAA later this month.

 

January 2014