Development of Global Regulations for Uncrewed Aircraft Systems - Europe and beyond: A Continued Survey and Evaluation of Progress

This paper provides insights into the harmonization of Uncrewed Aircraft Systems (UAS) regulations across Europe and other regions, highlighting efforts to standardize operations and practices. After a review of the status quo of global drone regulations, the importance of technology trends will be examined. Furthermore, a regulatory literature review will complement the research and discussion, identify baseline findings and build a foundation for the core of the article. The main section of the paper concentrates on statistical survey results collected from Civil Aviation Authorities from Europe and other countries worldwide in the year 2024. A quantitative analysis will examine progress and trends in general, and a comparison to the previous survey from 2022 will indicate areas of change, growth and decline in the statistics of drone operators, pilots and economic development. The paper aims also to identify areas of missing global harmonization in key areas of drone regulation, such as (1) terminology (remote pilot, operator, specific operations), (2) statistical evaluation of relevant data (no. of pilots, drones and operators), and (3) operational clearances and the associated processes (BVLOS, ConOps, SORA). Building on the results and the evaluation of developments in the factors measured, the discussion section will recognize root causes for potential growth or decline, as a stepwise integration of UAS in domestic airspaces, both controlled and uncontrolled requires well-informed authorities and policymakers. The recommendation section will outline the trends and evaluate potential macroeconomic measures or regulatory actions for a positive future development of the drone economy.