UAV Fees on the Increase in the UK..
…but it’s not all bad
CAA increase fees to £185 for a renewal and £247 for a new Permission
This article is intended for existing UAV permission holders. The CAA launched a consultation last October about an increase of fees for permission (License) holders for Drones. It was proposed that fees were going to increase by several hundred percent. However the CAA published their findings of their own consultation and found what I believe to be a happy medium. The general feeling in the industry is that there are so many unlicensed operators around that don’t pay for insurance or a license which enables them to undercut existing license holders that such large fee increases are not justified and will do nothing but encourage drone operators to not new their licenses.
Some of the responses to the CAA consultation:
I have lost half my photographic work to an individual operating clearly and blatantly without a UAV license. Savills, Knight Frank and other global agents employ him. I cannot understand why after 5 years of paying for a license and insurance I should frankly bother anymore if no one police’s the rogue commercial pilots.
‘With increased costs the CAA will simply encourage people working part time in the industry either not to apply or renew their PfCO, therefore operate without insurance and basically drive them into the black economy.’
‘It’s clearly evident that the laws as they stand are not being enforced, with illegal operators now able to brag about their antics on-line, on YouTube and Facebook without consequence. With this being the situation, increasing the cost burden to those having undergone training and examination with an NQE is rather unwelcome.’
The new fees are just over £180 for a years renewal and just over £240 for a new license. We feel these fees are quite realistic. We just need to try and get the insurance fees down now.
Here is a link to the consultation response.
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