AlphaTango from A to Z: the operator's guide

AlphaTango is the DGAC's official portal for everything that flies without a pilot on board. Operator registration, aircraft registration, certificates, flight notifications, annual report: every professional operator goes through it — often with no one to explain in which order. Here is the complete handbook, from your first account to delegating notifications.

AlphaTango (alphatango.aviation-civile.gouv.fr) is the official register of unmanned-aircraft operators and aircraft, maintained by the DGAC. This is where your declaratory obligations live: who you are, what you fly, who pilots, and — for certain operations — when and where you fly.

What AlphaTango is not: a mission-planning tool. It will not tell you whether your area crosses a CTR, which prefectural procedures your flight requires, or whether your insurance covers the declared aircraft. That is the role of operations tools — AlphaTango records, it does not advise.

Registering as a UAS operator is the starting point of any professional activity. It is mandatory in the Specific category whatever the drone's mass, and in the Open category as soon as the drone weighs 250 g or more, can transfer more than 80 joules to a person on impact, or carries a sensor able to capture personal data (unless it is a toy compliant with Directive 2009/48/EC). It concerns the person (natural or legal) who organises the flights and bears responsibility for them — not each pilot individually.

• You receive a UAS operator number (“FRA” followed by 13 characters) — this is what must be affixed to each of your aircraft. With an error-correcting code appended, it forms your electronic identifier, to be entered in the direct remote identification of the drones that carry one (classes C5 and C6 for the European standard scenarios).
• Operator information (company name, address, contact) must stay up to date: an unreported change of address is a silly but real non-conformity.
• Depending on your operations, you also declare your standard scenarios (STS-01, STS-02) — the operational declaration is made in your operator area, and it requires an up-to-date Ops Manual (MANEX).

Any unmanned aircraft with a take-off mass of 800 g or more must be registered on AlphaTango by its owner; below that threshold, only an aircraft broadcasting French electronic conspicuity must be. Not to be confused with operator registration, required in the Specific category whatever the mass. Registration produces a registration number (UAS-FR-…), valid for five years, and a register extract the remote pilot must carry on every flight.

Each remote pilot has their own AlphaTango area where their certificates live (A1/A3 training, A2 exam, STS theoretical certificate). On the operator side, your obligation is to assign to missions only pilots with valid credentials — and to be able to prove it.

Two prior formalities go through AlphaTango. A flight over a populated area in the Specific category, like a professional flight over public space in a built-up area in the Open category, requires a prior declaration to the competent prefecture, with ten working days' notice (five until 31 December 2025): Sundays and public holidays do not count, and neither does the day of the declaration or the first day of flights. AlphaTango is the recommended channel, CERFA form no. 15476 the alternative. Every beyond-visual-line-of-sight flight, and every visual-line-of-sight flight of an aircraft over 900 g in a military manoeuvre or training area during its activity hours, requires prior notification to the Ministry of the Armed Forces, mandatorily through AlphaTango, between D−2 at 04:00 and D-day at 04:00 (Paris time). If the flight changes, send the prefecture a new declaration: inside the notice period, its prior approval is required.

This is the most repetitive part of the portal: for an operator who flies several times a week, manually re-entering each notification quickly becomes the number-one administrative chore. That is precisely why the DGAC exposes an official API that lets third-party tools submit notifications on your behalf.

AlphaTango lets you appoint a delegate: a third party holding a delegate number issued by the DGAC (DEL…), authorised to file your flights on your behalf — this is how tools connected to the API work. The process takes three clicks:

1. 1In your area: My professional activity → Delegation;
2. 2Add the delegate (for Dronops: delegation DEL44);
3. 3Copy your “UID identifier to share with delegates” (a number) and send it to the delegate.

From then on, the delegate can submit, amend and cancel your notifications — you remain the responsible operator, and everything stays visible in your AlphaTango area.

Every January, an operator who has declared an activity on AlphaTango files there the activity report for the previous year: flight hours by scenario and by field of activity, and a summary of incidents. It is quick when flight logs are kept as you go — and a painful reconstruction when they are not. Keep the log on every flight, and the report becomes a five-minute formality.

• Confusing personal account and operator account — professional activity is declared under the operator (the company), not under the remote pilot.
• Operator number missing from the aircraft — it must be affixed to every machine and, on drones fitted with direct remote identification, entered into it.
• Ghost drones — resold, crashed or retired but still active in the register.
• Expired certificates — AlphaTango does not chase you: keeping watch on deadlines is on you.
• Forgotten or uncancelled notifications — a cancelled flight whose notification is still live is a visible inconsistency.
• Last-minute annual report — without a maintained flight log, it means a day of reconstruction.