AirMap LAANC Capability Off-Line: Company Not Currently Listed as FAA Provider

The AirMap LAANC capability appears to be off-line currently, and the company name does not appear at this time on the FAA’s list of approved providers.  (Image below from FAA website.)

In a drone pilot chatroom last Friday, Lead Drone Pro for the FAA Safety Team in North Texas Adrian Doko mentioned that several service providers had reached out to the Safety Team with questions about the lapse in service.

At the time of writing, AirMap has not responded to requests for more information.  The AirMap LAANC capability is still described on the company’s website, so the lapse in service may be temporary.

In 2017, AirMap was one of the first companies to work on the FAA’s Low Altitude Authorization and Notification Capability (LAANC), which represented a significant advance in automating the process of flight permissions for drone pilots.    The LAANC capability allows drone pilots to receive airspace authorizations in minutes, reducing the waiting time dramatically and enhancing the environment for commercial drone operations.

Since then, the LAANC program has expanded to include other companies, more airports, and recreational flyers: and more competing airspace apps have grown in size.  Aloft, formerly known as Kittyhawk, is the developer behind the FAA’s B4UFly App; drone delivery company Wing has released the OpenSky app; the other players listed all provide a LAANC capable offering.