Netherlands eases Open-category drone access near five airport CTRs

Key facts

• Effective 26 Nov 2026, Open-category drone pilots may fly in designated parts of civil CTRs around five Dutch airports.
• In those designated CTR areas, pilots will no longer need to establish radio contact with ATC before flying.
• Airports explicitly referenced include Amsterdam Schiphol and Rotterdam The Hague Airport.

3 minute read

The Netherlands will expand Open-category drone access near airports from 26 November 2026 by designating specific portions of civil Control Zones (CTRs) around five Dutch airports where pilots can fly without establishing radio contact with air traffic control. The policy is explicitly framed as additional operating space close to airports, including Amsterdam Schiphol and Rotterdam The Hague Airport, and appears designed to lower procedural barriers for low-risk drone activity while keeping operations constrained to predefined CTR sectors.

For European aviation authorities, the decision is notable less for its immediate operational impact than for what it implies about the direction of controlled-airspace access policy under the EU drone framework. Allowing Open-category flights—typically associated with lower mass, altitude, and risk profiles—inside selected CTR segments without ATC radio contact suggests confidence that geographical “carve-outs” and procedural simplification can coexist with manned traffic protection, provided the boundaries are precise and communicated effectively through aeronautical information and digital geofencing datasets. The Netherlands, hosting one of Europe’s most capacity-constrained hubs at Schiphol, is an especially consequential environment in which to trial such calibrated access.

For procurement and security stakeholders, the change may increase the density of legitimate small UAS activity near critical transport infrastructure, which can complicate anomaly detection and response postures. It therefore strengthens the case for harmonised, data-driven airspace management, consistent remote identification compliance, and robust coordination between airport security, police, and air navigation services. For industry, reduced coordination overhead can improve mission economics for perimeter inspection, asset surveys, and time-sensitive tasks, but the operational advantage will ultimately hinge on how “designated parts” are defined, published, and enforced, and whether the approach becomes a template other European states adopt.

Source: DroneWatch.eu