Air Navigation and Transport Act

Aviation Security Act 1982
Summary
Covers offences against the safety of aircraft; Protection of aircraft, aerodromes and air navigation installations against acts of violence; Policing of airports; and Funding
Status: In force

The Air Navigation and Transport Act is an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom Parliament in 1920 which gave the British Empire the authority to control air navigation in the Commonwealth countries and territories. It also put into effect the International Commission for Air Navigation (ICAN).

The first attempts at international regulation of air navigation were made in 1910 in Paris, when representatives of 19 European countries attended an International Air Conference. The meeting was abandoned when agreement on the contents could not be reached. At a peace conference after World War I the regulation of air navigation was once again discussed. Because of the advances made in aviation during the war, all attending members agreed to hold an International Conference to draw up rules and international regulations for air traffic.

On 25 February 1919, an Air Traffic Committee, of 36 states in the British Empire under the Council of Defence met for the first time. The Paris Convention was signed on the 13 October 1919, by all attending representatives of the Commonwealth states.

Major General Legge, Chairman of the Committee, noted that "there should be only one regulatory air authority for Australia, working under a single legislature." At a Premiers’ Conference in May 1920 the Australian Prime Minister W.M. Hughes's recommendation that "each State should refer to the Commonwealth the control of air navigation, but in a way as to reserve to the States the right to own and use aircraft for the purpose of government departments and the police powers of the State" was carried, and the Commonwealth passed the Air Navigation Act in the widest possible terms.

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