Flying Drone in Greece | Complete Free Guide

If you are planning your trip to Greece with a drone here you will get all the information about flying drones in Greece.

We will be covering in detail the Greece Drone Laws for recreational use as a Travel vlogger / travel blogger.

Flying a drone is permitted in Greece, according to the country’s national aviation regulator, the Hellenic Civil Aviation Authority (HCAA), but we advise being informed of and abiding by the drone laws stated below before doing so.

Here is their contact information if you’d like to get in touch with them personally before your trip with any queries you might have: +30 210 891600 / [email protected]

General Rules for Flying a Drone Within the European Union

Greece must follow by the drone laws established by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency because it is a member of the EU (EASA). Greece additionally has laws that are nation-specific in addition to these rules.

Here are the most crucial guidelines for drone operation within the European Union, as determined by our research and interpretation of the regulations.

Based on the weight of the drone and the intended use, there are three operational categories that influence drone laws. Only the Open Category will be covered in this part; click here to view all legislation and classifications pertaining to the European Union.

Open Category

A drone can be operated in the “Open “category if:

• One of the class identification labels for the drone is 0, 1, 2, 3, or 4.
• The drone was purchased prior to January 1, 2023, and it lacks the aforementioned class identification label.
• The maximum takeoff mass of the drone is less than 25 kg (55 lbs).
• The drone is kept safely away from people by the remote pilot.
• Unless the drone carries a class identification label or weighs less than 250 g, it cannot be flown directly over humans (0.55 lbs). (To learn where you can fly your drone, please see the subcategories of operations: A1, A2, and A3)
• A UA observer will aid the remote pilot if necessary to preserve visual line of sight (VLOS).
• The remote pilot won’t fly the drone higher than 120 meters (400ft).
• The drone won’t drop any materials or transport any hazardous cargo.

General Rules for Flying Drone in Greece

Based on our research and interpretation of the laws, here are the most important rules to know for flying a drone in Greece.

• You must complete an application for each individual drone flight you plan to conduct. You can find the application here. If your application is approved by the HCAA, you then must verify our identify and share your flight plans with the local police department. We have covered in detail about this entire process in our Youtube Video mentioned in the post below.
• You may fly up to 120 meters (393 feet) above the ground.
• Commercial pilots must obtain permission for all operations. More information can be found on this page on the HCAA website.
• Drones may not be flown at night.
• Drone operators who fly for commercial purposes or in the “Specific” or “Certified” category must have drone insurance.
• Drone operators who fly for hobby or recreation only do not need drone insurance unless their drone weighs more than 4 kg, falling into the “Open-A2 category.” See Articles 7, 8, and 9 of this document from the HCAA for more information on UAS categories.
• Drones may not weigh more than 25 kilograms (55 pounds).
• Drones may not be flown over people, prisons, hospitals, government and military facilities, and other sensitive areas.
• Drones may not be flown over private property without permission from the property owner.

For more information on Greece’s drone laws, see this document created by the HCAA.

Can you fly drone on Archaeological Sights?

Well if you are planning your trip to Greece then I am sure you would be thinking about exploring Athens and when you are in Athens with a Drone then your mind would keep on suggesting you to go for a flight over the Acropolis.

Well but there is a sad story about it?, You can not fly over the Acropolis or any archaeological sights in Athens without the approval from the Cultural Ministry.

And when I reached out to the team for the approval in 2020 at that time the asked for the cost of 500 EUR for the shooting over the Acropolis. So I chose to skip flying near Acropolis.

The email from which you can get the approval is this [email protected] you have to explain about the case and why you want to fly and once you have received the email approval from the team you have reapply with the form and co-ordinates mentioned above to the HCAA to get the final approval for the flight.

Now one other place where I was able to get the approval was near Temple of Poseidon in Sounio where I said that I would not be flying over the Temple but I would be just clicking picture for recreational purpose and making videos for recreational purpose from outside but not on the archaeological site.

Below is the sample email from the Cultural Ministry which you can check

One more important thing for Non EU Citizen is that at the moment Greece is not accepting the UAS registration and you can only apply to get the approval for flying if your drone is already registered in any of the other European Countries. So one alternative could be registering your drone in Germany.

Want to get a feel for the kind of footage you could get flying a drone in Greece? Here you go: