Commercial UAV Operators Double

Thursday, 27 August, 2015

An interesting summary piece over at Amateur Photographer…. and particularly noting that

“The number of CAA-approved commercial operators now stands as 862, compared to 549 in April and a reported 359 in October 2014.”

Of course from this headline figure its hard to gauge the volume increase of flights (and their distance/duration), although I guess that could be the subject of an FoI request, however the increase in operators does show the burgeoning of a new market. At some point in the next few years we’ll see this mature as survey requirements are operationalised and the size of operators increase with companies merging.

Perhaps of more interest will be the consumer market…. this is where there will be a significant increase in flights and probably the highest safety risk as well. This is what will drive both innovation and legislation. Its worth noting (from the article)

“According to Forbes business magazine, the world’s largest consumer drone maker, DJI, is now worth $10 billion.” Now thats food for thought…

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