The Complete Air Traffic System (CATS) Global Council at CANSO has published a new paper that considers if today’s flight rules are ready for tomorrow’s aviation.
The ‘Seamless Airspace’ paper explores whether traditional constructs like Visual Flight Rules (VFR) and Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) which are designed for human-piloted aircraft in predictable environments can support the growing diversity of operations now entering the airspace.
The council identifies critical gaps in today’s flight rules and outlines opportunities for research into more dynamic, performance-based frameworks that use automation, flight path intent, and real-time data. It calls on industry, regulators and academia to collaboratively explore new or adapted rules that ensure safety, scalability and equitable access in increasingly complex skies.
“The future requires dynamic, performance-based separation minima defined by actual aircraft behaviour, automation capabilities, and operational risk context, not simply by airspace class,” the paper states. “The legacy model assigns separation responsibility based on pilot or controller roles, underpinned by qualitative assumptions about communication, surveillance, and human judgement. However, automation demands quantifiable, adaptable frameworks that operate reliably at scale. The core question is not whether separation minima must change, but how to achieve equivalent or better safety performance through new mechanisms.”
Among the recommended actions, the paper calls for a globally supported roadmap to guide the transition from today’s air traffic system to a digitally coordinated airspace environment. This would prioritise foundational projects, such as automated separation trials, digital flight rules prototyping and mixed-equipage integration models.
“This paper isn’t just theoretical, it’s a call to action,” said Dr Eduardo Garcia, Senior Manager, Future Skies, CANSO, who coordinated its development. “It’s about unlocking aviation’s full potential through a smart, inclusive, and forward-thinking framework to guide the evolution of flight rules, underpinned by targeted research.”
Garcia said the paper was produced with the support of NASA, Wisk, Wing, HAPS Alliance, Airbus, Boeing, Flight Safety Foundation, IFALPA, ALPA, skyguide, DFS and others.
For more information
Seamless Airspace paper at CANSO
Image: CATS Global Council
