The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced new partners in its Low Altitude and Notification Capability (LAANC) initiative. LAANC is the system created by the FAA and industry stakeholders that provides near real-time processing of airspace authorizations for unmanned aerial systems (UAS) operations under the FAA’s Part 107 regulations. Now, after a five-month onboarding process (which began in April 2018), nine new LAANC partners have been added, which may mean even speedier authorizations in controlled airspace –Aeronyde, Airbus, AiRXOS, Altitude Angel, Converge, DJI, KittyHawk, UASidekick and Unifly. These companies join AirMap, Harris Corp., Project Wing, Skyward and Thales Group which had already met the technical requirements set by the FAA to provide LAANC services.

The FAA will be accepting new applications from additional potential partners from January 7 through February 8, 2019 and again from July 8 through August 9, 2019. Interested parties can find information on the FAA’s website and get more information about the application process here.