Catalogue description Ministry of Aviation and successors: Aviation Overseas Policy Division and successors: Registered Files (EE Series)

Arranged in previous reference order by transfer.

The Aviation Overseas Policy Division (AOPD) was established in 1959 in the Ministry of Aviation. The Division initially retained its name when responsibility for civil aviation matters was transferred to the Board of Trade in the latter half of 1966, but from 1968, following a restructuring of the civil aviation side of the department, its functions were exercised by Civil Aviation Divisions 1, 2, and 3, and these divisions survived the Board's merger with the Ministry of Technology in 1970 to form the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI). In 1974, when the DTI was split into the three Departments of Trade, Industry, and Prices and Consumer Protection, the divisions continued in existence as part of the Department of Trade, but in 1976 the work passed to that department's Civil Aviation International Relations Division. When civil aviation work was transferred to the Department of Transport in 1983, responsibility for the files passed to a new International Aviation Division, where it remained for the lifetime of the series.

AOPD was responsible for the formulation of UK policy concerning international scheduled air service agreements. It was also responsible for policy matters arising from its UK representation within the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO); and, more generally, on the provision of ground facilities overseas where the UK had an interest. The Secretariat for Commonwealth Air Transport Council (CATC) also consisted of AOPD staff.