Recreational drone pilots can now apply for LAANC authorizations at night. This feature went live today across the Aloft platform, including Aloft’s mobile apps and on the web at https://air.aloft.ai/login.

Since August 2021, Aloft has supported LAANC at night for commercial (Part 107) operators, and we are thankful that the FAA has approved this functionality for recreational pilots. Just as commercial pilots must comply with the regulations, recreational pilots must comply with their rules and regulations for nighttime LAANC authorizations, such as completing The Recreational UAS Safety Test (TRUST) prior to flying and following the safety guidelines of an FAA Recognized Community Based Organization. Full compliance details and links are available in the Aloft web and mobile applications as you request and manage your LAANC authorizations.

This new functionality is critical, as recreational participation with LAANC is decreasing. Whereas total FAA commercial LAANC authorizations increased 22% last year, total FAA recreational LAANC authorizations decreased 5% in 2022 from 185k authorizations to 175k. As Aloft powers the vast majority of commercial and recreational LAANC, we continue to work with the FAA and propose new capabilities to increase LAANC usage, utility, and effectiveness. Recreational LAANC at night is a good next step, but we believe more needs to be done to continue serving drone pilots and their access to the airspace.

The safety of the National Airspace System (“NAS”) requires dedicated partners to serve the largest user base of the NAS – drone pilots – with secure tools that protect user privacy and enable equitable access to the air. Aloft holds both SOC2 Type II and ISO 27001 certifications and we are continually putting our systems through all industry and regulatory requirements to ensure data privacy and protection. As we operate in full transparency, just as we make our standard security audits available, we will continue to share updates as they are made available and approved by the FAA for distribution.

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