C-DRONE GUIDE · 20 APRIL 2026
Getting authorised to fly a drone over a built-up area in France
In France, flying a drone over a built-up area is never trivial: leisure flight over public space is prohibited, and while professionals may fly there in the open category since 1 January 2026, the prior declaration to the préfecture remains, with the notice period extended to 10 working days. Here is the full procedure, the real lead times and the pitfalls to avoid.
Why the open category is not enough in town
European Regulation 2019/947 organises drone flights into three categories: open (low risk, no authorisation), specific (moderate risk, declaration or authorisation required) and certified. In the open category you may fly up to 120 m, within visual line of sight, away from assemblies of people. But French regulation adds a major constraint: the French "airspace" order prohibits recreational open-category flight over public space in built-up areas. In practice, a street, a square or a municipal park — even deserted at 6 a.m. — is off-limits to a leisure open-category flight. Major change: since 1 January 2026, the order of 23 December 2025 allows professional activities to fly in the open category over public space in built-up areas — with no overflight of people, daytime only.
There is one useful exception: private property. Taking off from a homeowner's garden and flying only over their plot with their consent, at a suitable height and without crossing the neighbouring public road, remains possible in the open category. This is what makes most simple real-estate jobs in residential areas feasible. As soon as the mission requires overflying people, flying at night or exceeding the limits of the open category, you must move to the specific category.
STS-01, the standard framework for urban flights
Since 1 January 2026, the former French national scenarios (S-1, S-2, S-3) have definitively given way to the European standard scenarios. For flight over built-up areas, the reference framework is STS-01: visual-line-of-sight flight, at a maximum height of 120 m, above a controlled ground area — a perimeter the operator guarantees no uninvolved third party will enter during the flight. The drone must carry a class C5 marking (or a C3 upgraded to C5 by kit), weigh under 25 kg and have a flight-termination system.
On the operator side, STS-01 requires an operating declaration filed on AlphaTango, an operations manual, and a remote pilot holding the CATS theoretical certificate issued by the DGAC plus a practical training attestation. This is not last-minute paperwork: an operator who has never declared STS-01 needs several weeks to build the file. That is why urban missions should go to an operator that is already declared — you then only bear the flight-specific préfecture declaration.
The préfecture declaration: lead time and content
Any professional flight over a built-up area must be declared in advance to the préfet of the relevant département (cerfa form 15476*04), at least ten working days before the flight date — a notice period extended from five to ten days by the order of 23 December 2025, in force since 1 January 2026. Most préfectures now accept these declarations online. The file includes: the operator's identity and UAS operator number, the drone's characteristics, the date, times and duration of the flight, a map showing the overflown zone and the third-party exclusion area, and the maximum planned height.
Ten working days is the legal minimum — in practice, allow three weeks to absorb a possible refusal or a request for additional information, especially in Paris and the major metropolitan areas where the police préfecture applies reinforced rules. Some dates are near-impossible: heightened Vigipirate security periods, major sporting events, official visits. The declaration itself is free; what the operator invoices, typically €80 to €200, covers the time spent building the file and coordinating with the town hall or municipal police — often worthwhile even when not mandatory.
On the day: obligations in the field
The declaration does not waive any field obligation. The operator must physically mark out the third-party exclusion zone (barriers, tape, ground crew) and ensure no uninvolved person is inside it during flight phases. The pilot keeps within reach the préfecture's acknowledgement of the declaration, their certificate, the insurance attestation and the relevant extract of the operations manual: in town, police checks are frequent, often triggered by a single call from a resident.
The declared heights and perimeter are binding: flying at 80 m when the declaration says 50, or drifting 30 m outside the perimeter, exposes the operator to criminal penalties — up to a €75,000 fine and one year's imprisonment for unlawful overflight under the French transport code. If plans change (weather, site delays), it is always better to file a new declaration than to improvise on the spot. A serious professional will always refuse to wing it — and that is precisely what protects the client.
Total lead time and cost
For a client, the realistic timeline of an urban mission looks like this: D-20, quote and flight plan approved; D-15, préfecture declaration filed (ten working days minimum); D-3, weather confirmation; day D, shoot. So allow three to four weeks between order and images, versus two to five days for a mission outside built-up areas. The count runs in working days: a Saturday flight must be declared a good two weeks in advance.
Budget-wise, the urban premium is around €150 to €400 compared with an equivalent rural mission: file preparation, extra ground crew to hold the perimeter, and coordination time. A half-day photo and video capture in a city centre therefore runs between €600 and €1,200 in 2026. One tip to optimise: bundle your needs. A single declaration can cover several time slots over several consecutive days, which absorbs a weather postponement without redoing the procedure. Likewise, if several sites in the same municipality need coverage within the year — agency storefronts, construction sites, events — pooling the flights into one campaign significantly reduces the unit cost of each capture.