The government, in partnership with the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), has plans to remove red tape and bureaucracy from the UK's aviation industry.

This is part of the General Aviation Red Tape Challenge, announced in April, which aims to remove impractical regulations - general aviation (GA) refers to services which are not commercially scheduled, such as corporate flights. The Department for Transport (DfT) states most air traffic is part of this sector.

Chair of the CAA Dame Deirdre Hutton said: "The new, dedicated GA Unit is a formal recognition that GA needs a different and less onerous regulatory regime to commercial air transport."

As part of this push, DfT will create an independent Challenge Panel to report straight to ministers until April 2014, looking for areas to deregulate and encourage growth. DfT will also look to identify investment opportunities and work with European bodies.

CAA has committed itself to providing culture change, self-regulation and increased value for money in the GA sector. For instance, it wants to move airworthiness forms completely online by the year's end, as well as having around 70 per cent of license applications online by Christmas.