Think Tank Wants UK Regional Airports To Become Aviation Innovation Hubs

A UK think tank is urging the government to modernize the airspace around some of the country’s struggling regional airports to enable them to become centers for testing and operating drones and other advances in aviation.

The Good Growth Foundation, a political think tank that advocates for policies that drive equitable and sustained economic growth, has released a report on fast-tracking special use airspace (SUA) to allow the UK’s regional airports to become hubs for innovation.

“The UK’s regional aviation network is fraying at the edges,” the report says. “Peripheral infrastructure that once anchored regional economies … is being left to wither. Unlocking the entirety of this industry could, however, reap enormous economic reward.”

Advances in drones, autonomous systems and artificial intelligence-enabled aviation are creating “unprecedented” demand for testing, manufacturing and operational airspace,” the think tank argues.

“These developments create an urgent need for modernized airspace, operational resilience and strategically located live test environments,” the report says. “To realize this requires looking at our regional airports.”

The think tank uses as its example Lydd Airport in Kent on England’s south coast. Despite providing an “essential” base for maritime security and search and rescue in the busy English Channel, the airport faces annual losses, the report says.

“A model of managed decline has treated [the UK’s] regional airports as liabilities,” the think tank says. “Transitioning to a high-growth mode requires cutting red tape and fundamentally shifting how we value local airspace.”

The report outlines “the opportunity to turn Lydd into a national model for the re-commercialization of regional aviation by fast-tracking a special use airspace designation that would facilitate the airport to become a Center for Future Flight Innovation (CFFI) of international standing.”

The proposal to establish the Lydd CFFI as a hub for drones and autonomous aviation, as well as support aerospace testing and future flight technologies, was formally launched in the UK Parliament on Sept. 8.

Using existing Transport Act 2000 legislation, the government can fast-track an SUA designation to unlock “significant” economic and humanitarian benefits, the report says, enabling Lydd to be established as a high-tech cluster and center of excellence for next-generation air traffic control and aerospace research and development.

The Good Growth Foundation recommends adopting Lydd as a national blueprint for the government’s Future of Flight strategy for the industrialization of emerging aviation technologies in the UK, which was published in 2024.

The report identifies other regional airports in England that could be established as aviation innovation hubs, including: Cotswold Airport in the South West, an aircraft storage facility and flight test base for Vertical Aerospace and ZeroAvia; Humberside Airport close to the North Sea energy fields; and Doncaster Sheffield Airport, a potential high-capacity location in Northern England.