Drone regulation update, September 2026: Spain's second LUC in two and a half years

September brought progress on several fronts at once: BVLOS governance, Light UAS Operator Certificate adoption, advanced air mobility and hybrid-electric aviation, with authorities investing further in digital oversight and operational guidance. The decision worth the most attention came from Spain, which issued only its second LUC in two and a half years, and Germany opened a national portal for reporting drone occurrences.

EMEA

Spain issues only its second LUC, and it works across Europe. On 9 September AESA granted a Light UAS Operator Certificate to the Centro Avanzado de Tecnologías Aeroespaciales, the Andalusian aerospace technology centre. The headline reads like routine progress, and the dates tell a different story: the first Spanish LUC went to CATUAV in February 2024, so this is the second in two and a half years.

A LUC is an optional organisational approval that recognises an operator's organisational, operational and safety management maturity. Depending on the level of maturity demonstrated, the authority grants privileges that can extend to assessing and authorising your own operations without applying for each one. The part that gets overlooked is reach: the certificate is valid across every EASA member state, which makes it the closest thing to a European operating licence currently available. One caveat worth keeping in mind is that privileges are granted according to the maturity an operator actually demonstrates, so a LUC does not automatically mean full self-authorisation.

Germany opens a drone occurrence reporting portal. The Federal Aviation Office launched an online platform for reporting drone-related occurrences, intended to improve safety oversight and give regulators data to work from. Occurrence reporting is where the evidence base for future rulemaking gets built, so operators flying in Germany should expect this to inform what comes next.

EASA publishes the agenda for its 2026 IAM Forum. The programme is now available for the Innovative Air Mobility Forum, which brings regulators, industry and other stakeholders together on drones, eVTOL and advanced air mobility.

Kuwait tightens its national drone rules. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation announced new measures to regulate unmanned aircraft operations.

Americas

The FAA expands the BEYOND programme. A significant expansion brings additional participants into the collaborative work on routine BVLOS operations and wider UAS integration. Of the American items this month, this is the one with the clearest read-across to European BVLOS practice.

A federal eVTOL pilot programme launches. The US Department of Transportation and the FAA opened the programme to build operational experience ahead of wider advanced air mobility deployment.

First remotely piloted hybrid-electric cargo flight demonstrated. The FAA announced the demonstrations, a step for next-generation cargo aviation.

Asia-Pacific

Japan continues to build out its framework. MLIT published further updates supporting commercial expansion and airspace integration, alongside additional policy developments on innovation and operational safety.

Australia publishes consultation outcomes. CASA released the results of its consultation on future drone policy, feeding stakeholder feedback into the next phase of rulemaking, and issued its September RPAS update.

Standardisation bodies

No major publications or consultations were released during this period.

What to take from it

The LUC route is maturing slowly, and that is the point. Two certificates in Spain in two and a half years tells you this is an approval for organisations that can evidence a working safety management system and a track record, rather than a shortcut around the authorisation process. For an operator flying regularly in the specific category across more than one country, it is still the most useful thing on this list, because the privileges travel with you.

Occurrence reporting is becoming infrastructure. Germany's portal joins a broader move towards regulators making decisions from operator data. Reporting well is quietly becoming part of being a credible operator.

Advanced air mobility took most of the headlines this month. It is worth tracking and it is a separate conversation from the specific category work that most drone programmes are actually doing today.

We track this every month. If you want help working out what an authorisation route looks like for your operation, our regulatory consultancy team does this with operators across Europe. And if there is a development we should be covering, tell us.