Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 8 May 2019 to Question 249823, Civil Aviation Authority, what recent estimate he has made of the scale of unlawful passenger transport operations.

The CAA, as the independent safety regulator, has not made an estimate of the scale of unlawful passenger transport operations.

There are strict rules in place that require commercial air transport operations to be operated by the holder of an Air Operator Certificate (AOC) and an Operating Licence (OL). It is an offence to operate a commercial air transport flight without an AOC or OL.

Since 2016, the CAA’s investigations and enforcement team has received 21 allegations of illegal public transport. The CAA investigates such allegations and will prosecute people where there is sufficient evidence, and where it is in the public interest to do so. The CAA also conducts spot check visits to airfields and public events where aeroplane and helicopter operations take place, and where it finds evidence that a flight may have operated illegally it has the power to detain an aircraft and, where appropriate, take enforcement action.