EASA sends proposed air taxi and drone regulations for passage into EU law

The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has presented its proposal for air taxi and other next generation aircraft regulation in a text now awaiting approval or amendment into law by the bloc’s executive body.

Released under the characteristically EU administrativese title of Opinion 03/2023, the EASA proposal sets out a “comprehensive regulatory framework to address new operational and mobility concepts that are based on innovative technologies” – in this case for air taxis, drones, and other emerging aerial applications. 

Read: EU seeks sector input to create unified counter-drone capacities

In doing so, it lays out both initial and longer-term rules for craft operation, air traffic management, certification of pilots and other crew members, and vertiport conception, and places that activity within the comprehensive EU-wide airspace rules known as SERA.

The EASA policy has many points in common with the