LUC - Light UAS operator certificate

On this page, you can read about the LUC - Light UAS operator certificate.

What is LUC?

LUC stands for Light UAS Operator Certificate. If you are a drone operator with many and complex drone operations, you may choose to apply for a Light UAS Operator Certificate.

With an LUC, your company is authorised to plan and approve its own drone operations, but this requires that your company can maintain multiple functions including developing and maintaining a safety management system.

An LUC is issued for an unlimited duration and remains valid as long as you comply with the relevant requirements and legislation as a drone operator. An LUC can be used in all EU member states and cannot be transferred to others.

Requirements for an LUC

Before you begin drafting an application, you need to consider whether it is worthwhile for your organisation, as it requires a permanent commitment of additional resources to maintain the required organisation both financially and in terms of personnel.

Below you will find the requirements that must be met as an LUC operator:

An LUC requires experience. Thus, we require that, before applying, you have demonstrated that you can satisfactorily prepare and get approval for a drone operation in the specific category.

As we need to be assured of your organisation’s operational reliability, we will require at least 3 approved operations in the specific category. However, the number may be higher, depending on the quality of individual application processes.

When applying for an LUC, you must submit an LUC manual, which must include the following:

  • Introduction: Information about the company, revision lists, abbreviations, safety statement, and the responsible manager’s signature.
  • Safety Management Manual (SMM): The most comprehensive part of the LUC manual, which must include principles for the division of responsibilities among key staff, principles for assessing risk assessments, the management system, and the safety management system.
  • All company operation manuals related to the different types of operations being conducted by the organisation .
  • Principles for incident reporting.
  • Principles for how the company handles hazardous goods.

An LUC operator must have a safety board that continuously works to improve the safety of drone operations in the company by setting specific goals that the safety management system employees can work towards on a concrete level. This way, the company’s safety management system can be continuously improved.

The Safety Management System is the function within the LUC operator’s organisation that ensures that the safety of the drone operations is consistently maintained, documented, and improved.
The following processes must be established for an LUC operator:

  • Safety reports and internal investigations.
  • Formal internal communications about safety.
  • Training and safety promotion.
  • Control function for compliance with requirements, procedures, and legislation.
  • Interfaces between external organisations.
  • Safety assessments principle of partners and subcontractors.

Under the Safety Management System, there must be an independent function that monitors these processes, continuously identifies improvements, and reports back to the safety committee. This can be a person or a system that ensures all critical points are documented and addressed.

Initial guidance meeting

Applying for an LUC can be complicated and time-consuming. Additionally, there is no single method for how you should make the necessary changes to your organisation, or how many changes you must make to meet the requirements.

Therefore, we do not have an application form, but instead offer an initial startup meeting where we can answer any questions you might have about the process.

You can request a guidance meeting by emailing info@trafikstyrelsen.dk. Add your company name to the subject line of the email.

The actual application process begins only when you submit the LUC in full. Thus, the guidance meeting is not included in the application process.

Download cross-reference list to all the requirements for your LUC application.

 Processing of the above-mentioned applications and permits is subject to a fee according to the applicable order on fees and charges in the aviation sector for the Danish Civil Aviation Authority.

A preliminary guidance meeting before submission of your LUC application will be held free of charge.

Read more about the fees and the applicable fee regulation here.

Senest opdateret 09-04-2025