CATT plans to promote the commercial drone flying, have the drone training and certification courses, as well as safety standard comparable with aircrafts.
According to Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand (CAAT) Director General Chula Sukmanop, the flying drone is becoming relevant increasingly commercial with ten thousand of drone license have been applied.
Purposes of drone license applications are varied, including taking photos, agriculture, railroad survey, and surveying high-voltage transmission line. The CAAT therefore has to upgrade the safety standard of drone flying, similar to the commercial aircraft in terms of registration, license, scope of flying areas and regulations for safety.
The drone license defines the range of flying, number of registered drones, and insurance, all of these have a purpose of safety for the community. At present, there are ten thousand drone license applicants submitted from public and private organizations and individual persons.
Though drones were planned to use for logistics and transportation, or a taxi, many restrictions still make the drone flying cannot be done the same as driving a car on the road. The safety and other relevant issues are matter.
In the future, there will be drone training schools based on the standard of CAAT who issues the license for drone pilots. The license serves as a pass for the drone industry development. CAAT will work with Defence Technology Institute (DTI) to consider the certification and training courses of drone flying and issue the license to training schools, and introduce the drone training institute paving the way for international standard in the future.
In a meantime, PTT Public Co., Ltd. and CATT signed a memorandum of understanding on the development of smart city of Wongchan Valley project in Rayong province to be a pilot research and development of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) regulatory sandbox. The project opens for anyone, investors, producers, to run a trial for the UAV business research and development.
