Until DISCO is in place, the CAA’s Shared Services are in charge of processing the PDRA01 within the CAA. Based on their database, we can assess that there were 2838 PDRA01 holders in CY 2023, vs 3515 in CY2012. The numbers for the early months of 2024 tend to indicate a continued attrition rather than a stabilisation.

In addition, the Specific Category includes roughly 100 operators holding operational approvals based on Operating Safety Cases.

The numbers may indicate a trend that we feared: some operators may not renew because they are out of business; or they genuinely no longer need a PDRA01 and can fly within the Open category; or operators aren’t sure anymore if they should renew or not. The regulation is complex, it is difficult to follow it all, and they elect not to renew. The privileges attached to the PDRA01, now that the guidelines wrt flying close to uninvolved people are more restrictive, may no longer justify the effort of maintaining an Operations Manual and an Operational Authorisation.

Project DISCO should go live in the first week of April. Hopefully the digital platform will be easy to use, so that existing operators continue to renew.