Drones near airports: the rules in Germany and the EU

The idea is obvious: an A350 on final approach, photographed from above, with the runway as a line in the frame. Anyone who owns a camera drone thinks about it sooner or later. The short answer is still: drones near airports are off limits for hobby pilots – and not just right at the fence, but in an area that extends kilometers into the surrounding countryside. This guide shows you which rules apply in Germany and the EU, how big the zones actually are, where to check the binding information and why, as a plane spotter, you’re better off with a telephoto lens anyway.

Drone at the airport: the short answer

In Germany, you may not fly a drone in the open category within 1,000 meters of an airport’s boundary. The same applies in a corridor along the runway centerlines that extends up to 5 kilometers beyond the runway end in the approach and departure direction. Operation there is only permitted in the “specific” category, that is, with an official operational authorization – a route that is practically not open for recreational aerial photos. If the airport lies in a control zone, which is the case for all major commercial airports, you additionally need an air traffic control clearance throughout the entire zone.

The EU basis: open, specific, certified

Since the end of 2020, a uniform framework for unmanned aviation has applied in the EU, at its core Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/947. It assigns every drone flight to one of three categories according to its risk:

• Open: The category for the vast majority of hobby pilots. You fly in direct line of sight, at most 120 meters above ground, and follow subcategories A1, A2 or A3, which depend on drone class and distance to uninvolved people.
• Specific: Everything that exceeds the limits of the open category. For this you need an operational authorization or have to declare a recognized standard scenario – with risk assessment, operations manual and appropriate training.
• Certified: The category for operations with a risk comparable to manned aviation. Irrelevant for private individuals.

New drones carry a class marking from C0 to C4. According to EASA, C0 is under 250 grams, C1 under 900 grams, C2 under 4 kilograms, C3 and C4 under 25 kilograms. The higher the class, the more distance to people and the more certificates you need. For classes from C1, the EU A1/A3 certificate of competency with online training and exam is mandatory; for subcategory A2, the remote pilot certificate with an additional exam is added. The minimum age for remote pilots is generally 16; individual states may lower it for their territory.

One more building block is decisive for the airport topic: every EU state may define geographical areas in which drones may not fly at all or only under conditions. This is exactly where the national airport rules come in.

Germany: what Section 21h LuftVO regulates around airports

Germany has laid down its geographical areas in Section 21h of the Air Traffic Regulations (Luftverkehrs-Ordnung, LuftVO). Three provisions are relevant for spotters.

Area	Extent	When a flight is permitted
Airports	1,000 m laterally around the boundary	only in the “specific” category
Approach and departure corridor	extended runway centerlines up to 5 km, less than 1,000 m laterally from them	only in the “specific” category
Other airfields	1.5 km laterally around the boundary	with consent of the aviation supervision office, flight operations manager or operator, or in the “specific” category
Control zones	entire zone, many kilometers depending on the airport	only with air traffic control clearance obtained beforehand

The corridors along the runways are the part many people underestimate. At an airport with two parallel runways like Munich or Düsseldorf, add the runway length plus five kilometers at each end: the closed area stretches as a wide band far across fields, villages and exactly the paths where spotters like to stand. How runway numbers and orientation relate is explained in the article Airport runways and their designations.

Control zones: the bigger restricted area

A control zone is controlled airspace that begins at the ground and encloses an airfield with air traffic control. It is as a rule considerably larger than the 1,000-meter zone and generously covers the approach and departure paths. For Frankfurt Airport or Munich, this means: even in villages that feel far from the terminal, you may not launch without clearance.

You apply for the clearance through the Digital Platform for Unmanned Aviation (dipul). Whether and when it is granted is decided by air traffic control on a case-by-case basis. This route is not meant for a spontaneous flight to film a landing long-haul jet – and you can realistically not count on clearance for a flight right in the approach and departure paths.

Military airfields and other protected areas

Military facilities are also among the geographical areas: at a distance of 100 meters, a flight is only permitted with the express consent of the responsible body, and military airfields additionally often lie in control zones of their own. What applies on the ground around air bases is covered in the article Photographing military airfields: the rules. Besides that, Section 21h protects, among others, industrial facilities, hospitals, nature reserves and residential properties – at large airports, several of these areas often come together.

Registration, insurance, marking

Regardless of the airport, in Germany you have a few chores to take care of before a drone can legally take off at all:

• Operator registration: You register with the Federal Aviation Office as soon as your drone weighs 250 grams or more – or is lighter but has a camera on board and is not a toy. For natural persons, the LBA names a fee of €20.
• Registration number: You attach the assigned number to every aircraft. Many drones with a class marking additionally broadcast remote identification, depending on class, into which you enter the number.
• Liability insurance: At registration you give your insurer and policy number. Many private liability contracts exclude drones or cover them only to a limited extent – have the coverage confirmed in writing.
• Competency certificate: For most camera drones from class C1, you need the EU A1/A3 certificate of competency.

Important: none of this opens the airspace at the airport for you. Registration, insurance and competency certificate are the basic prerequisites for every flight – the zones apply regardless.

What a violation risks

An unauthorized flight in the airport zone is first an administrative offense. The Air Traffic Act provides fines of up to €50,000 for it. That isn’t always the end of it, though.

If the drone endangers flight operations, Section 315 of the German Criminal Code (StGB) comes into play, dangerous interference with air traffic. For an intentional act, the range of punishment begins at six months’ imprisonment and extends to ten years. Negligent conduct is also punishable, then with a fine or imprisonment of up to five or two years respectively. On top of that come possible civil claims: if a runway has to be closed because of a drone sighting, follow-on costs from diversions and delays quickly arise.

That this is not a theoretical scenario is shown by the experience of European airports. At the latest since the drone sightings at London Gatwick Airport in December 2018, which massively disrupted operations for days, airports and authorities take every sighting very seriously. In Germany and the neighboring countries, too, flight operations have been interrupted several times in recent years because of drones. For spotters, that means very practically: around the fences, people look more closely, and anyone standing at the edge of a field with a case full of equipment has to expect questions.

Austria and Switzerland

Both countries work under the same basic EASA rules but define their zones themselves.

• Austria: Austro Control shows the geographical zones in the Dronespace application, which is available as an app and desktop version. For flights in the security zones of airfields, Austro Control runs a special permit process of its own. Registration, a registration number attached to every drone and liability insurance are mandatory here too. If you’re standing at the Vienna spotters’ hill, you leave the drone in your backpack.
• Switzerland: Control zones of airports and the airfield perimeters are among the geographical restrictions. Which one applies and who grants a permit is shown by the federal drone map at map.geo.admin.ch in the object information. In addition, the FOCA requires a look at the daily airspace bulletin DABS before every flight. At Zurich Airport, the same therefore applies as in Germany: photos from spectator terrace B, not from the air.

In other EU states it looks no different – the zones are called something else, the principle remains. Before spotting trips, it is therefore always worth a look at the destination’s official drone map if the drone comes along in your luggage for landscape shots.

How to check before every flight whether you may fly

Even away from airports, the zone check is part of every drone flight. The procedure is always the same:

Why spotters leave the drone at home

Legal issues aside, photography also argues against the drone at the airport. The typical spotter subjects – side views on approach, rotation, touchdown with a puff of smoke, taxi traffic with registrations – are shot from the ground with a long focal length. A drone delivers bird’s-eye views that look spectacular but show neither registrations nor details cleanly and are not allowed at commercial airports anyway.

There are alternatives for calm airspace views: visitors’ hills like the one in Munich, the Zeppelinheim viewing platform beside the approach axis to Frankfurt’s south runway or the Düsseldorf observation deck offer elevated perspectives, completely legally. Which focal length you need for them is shown in the guide Lens for plane spotting, and how to turn your footage into gripping clips is covered in Filming plane spotting videos. The legal framework on the ground is summarized in Is plane spotting legal?.

Conclusion

The EU drone regulation sets the basic rules, the countries determine the restricted zones – and around airports these are strict everywhere. In Germany, the 1,000-meter zone, the runway corridors up to 5 kilometers and the control zones are practically closed to hobby pilots, regardless of the drone’s weight. Anyone who flies anyway risks fines of up to €50,000 and, in the worst case, criminal proceedings. For plane spotters, the matter is therefore simple: at the airport, the telephoto lens counts, not the propeller.