Every time someone wants to film with a drone in Barcelona they ask us the same question: "what does the law say?". The honest answer is that drone regulation is a three-layer puzzle —European, national and regional— that has to fit together before you take off. The good news is that, once you understand how the layers stack up, it all makes sense. This article is a clear summary updated to 2026, designed so that anyone —operator, company or individual— knows where they stand.
It is not an exhaustive legal guide nor does it replace the wording of the regulations: it is the mental map we wish we had had when we started. If you later need the operational detail for flying in the city, we link to our guide to drone permits in Barcelona at the end.
The European framework: EASA and AESA
Since 2021, drone regulation across the whole of European airspace has been unified by the regulations of EASA (the European Union Aviation Safety Agency). This means that the basic rules are the same in Lisbon, Berlin or Barcelona. In Spain, the body that applies and oversees this framework is AESA (the Spanish Aviation Safety Agency).
The regulation starts from a simple idea: the risk of the operation takes precedence over the weight of the drone. Depending on what you want to do —and not only on which drone you have— the activity falls into one of three categories: open, specific or certified. For the vast majority of audiovisual work, we are talking about the open category.
The open category: A1, A2 and A3
The open category is the lowest-risk one and covers almost all drone photography and video. It does not require prior authorisation for each flight, but it does require meeting strict conditions: flying below 120 metres in altitude, keeping the drone always in sight (VLOS) and not carrying dangerous goods. Within this category there are three subcategories according to proximity to people:
- A1 — flying "close" to people. For the lightest drones. It allows flying over isolated individuals, but never crowds. It is the subcategory for drones of up to 250 g and for certain models with a class marking.
- A2 — flying "close" with a safety distance. It allows getting close to uninvolved people while keeping a minimum horizontal distance (generally 30 metres, or 5 metres in low-speed mode). It requires the A2 remote pilot competency certificate.
- A3 — flying "far" from people. The most restrictive in terms of location: you must stay away from residential, commercial, industrial or recreational areas, and from any uninvolved person. It is the one with the lowest training requirements, but the one that forces you to look for open spaces.
Being in the open category does not mean flying freely. The city of Barcelona is airspace with restrictions: even if your operation is "open" in terms of risk, you will need to check ENAIRE's geographical zones and, as we will see, notify the flight to the Mossos d'Esquadra if you fly over an urban area.
Operator registration and pilot licence
Before the first flight you must complete two different procedures that are often confused:
Operator registration with AESA
The operator is the party responsible for the drone (a person or a company). You must register as an operator with AESA if the drone weighs 250 g or more, or if it carries a camera (with very few exceptions). The registration provides an operator number (NOP) that must be marked on the drone and loaded into the remote identification system. It is free and is renewed periodically.
Remote pilot licence
The pilot is the one who controls the drone. To fly in the open category you need, at a minimum, the A1/A3 training (a free online course and exam from AESA). For the A2 subcategory you also need the A2 competency certificate, with an in-person exam. Operator and pilot can be the same person, but they are different roles and accreditations.
Civil liability insurance
For any professional use —and, in practice, always advisable— you need civil liability insurance that covers the damage the drone may cause to third parties. It is not a bureaucratic whim: if an uninsured drone causes damage to people or property, the one who answers for it is the operator with their own assets. A serious operator always flies insured; at drone.barcelona we do so with a policy of €1,500,000.
ENAIRE's geographical zones
Having the drone registered and the licence in order says nothing about where you can fly. That information is given by the UAS geographical zones, which in Spain are checked on the ENAIRE Drones platform (official map and app). There you will see, on the map, where there are restrictions: proximity to airports, controlled airspace (CTR), national security zones, natural parks, critical infrastructure, etc.
Each zone has its own regime: there are prohibited ones, ones limited to certain conditions and others that only require a notification or authorisation. Checking ENAIRE before every flight is not optional: it is the step that separates a legal recording from an offence. If you want to quickly see whether your location has restrictions, you also have our tool Can you fly here?.
The Catalan detail: notification to the Mossos d'Esquadra
This is where many people trip up. On top of all the European and national regulations, in Catalonia there is a procedure of its own for flights over urban areas or over gatherings of people. Responsibility for public safety lies with the Police of the Generalitat – Mossos d'Esquadra, and that is why the notification does not go to AESA or the national police, but to them.
If you want to fly over an urban area or over gatherings of people in Catalonia, you must notify it in advance to the Police of the Generalitat – Mossos d'Esquadra, in accordance with Order INT/67/2019 and in relation to article 40 of Royal Decree 517/2024. The notification must be made at least 5 calendar days in advance of the flight date.
This step is independent of the ENAIRE permits and of your operation category: you can have all the European and national paperwork in order and, even so, be in breach if you fly over the urban core of Barcelona without having submitted this notification to the Mossos within the deadline. It is, precisely, one of the reasons why an "express" recording in the city cannot be improvised: you have to allow for these 5 days in the planning.
- Who has to do it. The operator responsible for the flight, with their AESA registration details.
- When. Whenever the operation involves flying over an urban area or gatherings of people, with 5 calendar days' notice.
- Why it matters. Because it is an additional regional requirement: complying with it avoids penalties and, above all, demonstrates that the operator works in a professional and transparent way.
In short: the full path
If we chain together all the layers, a legal operation over the city of Barcelona usually needs: to be within the appropriate open category (A1/A2/A3), to have the operator registered with AESA, a pilot with the corresponding licence, civil liability insurance, the check of ENAIRE's geographical zones and the notification to the Mossos d'Esquadra 5 days in advance when flying over an urban area.
The 2026 drone regulations have three levels —EASA, AESA and, in Catalonia, the Mossos d'Esquadra— and all three must be complied with at the same time. The easiest one to forget is the last, and it is precisely the one that causes the most problems in the city. If an authorised operator handles it for you, you don't have to worry about any of this.
This article is an indicative summary and the regulations may be updated; for the operational detail of flying in the city you have the guide to drone permits in Barcelona and, to check a specific location, the tool Can you fly here?. And if what you want is simply for your recording to be done well and legally, we handle everything from start to finish.
