Looking ahead to drones in 2025

This blog is brought to you by Drone Class, your drone trainer for flying in the open and specific category.

Before we start enjoying the holidays, we take a look ahead to the new year.

New devices

It is always exciting what new devices DJI will release. In 2024, the Air Series featured the new DJI Air 3S and the DJI Avata 2 and DJI Neo were also released. The DJI Neo looks set to get a little brother, the DJI Flip. Furthermore, it is obvious that the relatively older Mavic 3 Series is due for a successor. The new year 2025 would be a great time for that. The Mavic 4 Series could start with a Pro variant. Enterprise and Thermal versions are likely going to be released under the Matrice Series. More information and specifications to follow.

First EU Drone licences to expire

Anyone who applied for an A1-A3 and/or A2 certificate in early 2021 will no doubt have looked at the expiry date of the relevant certificate. If you obtained the A1-A3 and/or A2 certificate in 2021, you can continue to fly on your current certificate all year in 2025. After that, you will hear from us about how to proceed with the timely renewal of certificates.

SORA 2.5 active

For operations in the specific category, the Specific Operations Risk Assessment (SORA) is still an important authorisation tool. The old SORA 2.0 is due for replacement and will be succeeded by SORA version 2.5 in the coming year. This is a significant change as more emphasis is placed on obligations such as parachute systems. The challenge for new drone operators shifts from a lack of available parachute systems, to (currently) missing approval for these types of systems. It is basically a temporary bottleneck, which we can hopefully say will be solved by next year.

Partial opening of civilian CTRs

We end with positive news. Although it has not yet been officially communicated, the signals at the ministry and the inspectorate seem to be on green for a partial opening of civil CTRs in the Netherlands. These include Schiphol Airport, Rotterdam The Hague Airport, Maastricht Aachen Airport and Groningen Airport Eelde. Of course, it will remain illegal to fly close to these airports without a licence and permission (and RT will continue to be required there too), but the outer ring of the CTR is eligible for relaxation of the rules. On behalf of the Drone Class team, we wish you a great new year!