Flying drones

PROCEDURE

The purpose of this procedure is to establish the minimum requirements for the authorisation by the Port Authority of Bilbao of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) operations in the civil area of the Port of Bilbao and its port facilities.

The aim is to ensure compliance with all appropriate safety conditions and with the aeronautical regulations in force, both national and European, and thus ensure the correct functioning of air, sea and land operations, as well as the safety of people and adjacent properties.

To this end, a series of requirements are established to be met by UAS operators, depending on the area in which operations are to be carried out.

These operators must obtain and have express authorisation from the Port Authority of Bilbao, as the body responsible for the management of port infrastructure and premises.

Accordingly, this procedure applies to any operation carried out in the facilities of the Port of Bilbao within the framework of the EASA regulation, including public areas, internal and external waters and all the port’s facilities held under concession.

This procedure shall be applicable to any entity wishing to operate UAS, either for its own purposes or for third parties, and only in the professional field.

As mentioned above, this procedure establishes the requirements to be met by UAS operators within the port facilities, depending on the area in which they need to carry out the operation, as well as the criteria for requesting formal authorisation from the Port Authority for said operation, amongst other reasons, since:

• the port facilities are considered as critical facilities, pursuant to Critical Infrastructure Protection Regulation; and
• the port area is located within the controlled airspace of the Bilbao Aerodrome and within the security area of the Cruces Hospital and Torre Iberdrola Heliports.

The following considerations apply:

• The procedure only concerns UAS operations within the EASA environment, to which Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/947 mainly applies.
• The procedure basically sets out the aeronautical requirements established for operations with UAS in the service area of the Port of Bilbao, with the Port Authority itself being able to extend these requirements at a later date, both from the port and maritime perspective and in terms of public safety.