Remote-pilot certificates: what expires in 2026 — and how to keep your privileges

Five years. That is how long remote-pilot credentials issued under the European regulation stay valid, and the regulation has applied since 31 December 2020 — do the maths: A1/A3 proofs of training obtained in 2021 expire in 2026. And many operators will only find out the day a mission falls through.

Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/947 has applied in France since 31 December 2020. It replaced the national framework (S1/S2/S3 scenarios, the CATT) with the European Open category (sub-categories A1, A2, A3) and Specific category (standard scenarios STS-01 and STS-02, SORA/PDRA authorisations), after a transition period: declarations based on the national scenarios ceased to be valid on 1 January 2026, and the CATT has not been valid since that date (except in New Caledonia).

The associated credentials — the A1/A3 proof of training, the remote pilot certificate of competency (BAPD in France) for A2, the theoretical certificate for standard scenarios (the CATS in France) — are valid for 5 years. Mechanically:

• a certificate obtained in January 2021 expires in January 2026;
• the old national credentials (CATT with practical training, aptitude attestations) counted as a BAPD until 31 December 2025: BAPDs obtained by sworn declaration have not been valid since 1 January 2026, and the CATT no longer gives access to standard scenarios;
• by the end of 2024 the DSAC counted 148,874 registered UAS operators in France (excluding New Caledonia), 18,191 of them under standard scenarios: each must make sure its remote pilots hold up-to-date credentials.

Not all certificates grant the same privileges — and not all follow the same renewal procedure. The big picture:

For standard scenarios, add the practical-training attestation for the STS concerned, issued in France by an operator declared for that scenario and for training activities. The regulation sets no period of validity for it: only the theoretical certificate expires after 5 years.

Three places to look, in order:

1. 1AlphaTango — the 'Mes titres de télépilote' section of your account holds your A1/A3 proof and your BAPD with their dates. The CATS is downloaded from your OCEANE account instead.
2. 2The certificate itself (the PDF received on issue) — the expiry date is stated there in black and white.
3. 3Your operations-management tool — if your certificates are recorded there with their deadlines, you already get automatic alerts. If not, now is the time.

Regulation (EU) 2019/947 provides two ways to revalidate a credential while it is still valid: pass the examination again, or complete refresher training given by the authority or by an entity it designates. Once the credential has expired, only the examination remains. In France, pending revalidation conditions defined at European level, the DGAC requires you, to renew a BAPD, to take the 'OPEN A1/A3' online training again and pass the 'OPEN A2' exam again; the CATS is retaken at the end of its validity.

The schedule we recommend to operators:

Renewal terms depend on the credential and may change, in particular if revalidation conditions are defined at European level: rely on the information published by the DGAC and on AlphaTango.

Credentials stack up: the A1/A3 proof is the base, required to obtain both the BAPD and the CATS; the BAPD opens the A2 sub-category, the CATS (with the practical training) the standard scenarios of the Specific category. But each has its own expiry date: renewing the BAPD does not extend the CATS, and vice versa. The trap, when several credentials fall due in the same year, is renewing the wrong one.

An example: a pilot holds the BAPD and the CATS. They renew their BAPD, let the CATS slide 'for later'… and lose access to their operator's STS-01 missions — inspections in populated areas included. To recover the privilege, they must retake the CATS at a DGAC exam centre, and stay grounded on the highest-value missions until their session.

• Renew first the credential your actual activity depends on: the CATS if you fly STS-01 or STS-02 (a single theoretical certificate covers both scenarios), the BAPD if you fly A2.
• One credential does not replace the other: the DGAC presents the BAPD and the CATS as two separate credentials, one for the Open category, the other for the standard scenarios of the Specific category.
• Align the decision with your mission log: the hours actually flown per category tell you which privilege keeps the operation running.

For a team, the issue is managed like a maintenance plan — not as an individual affair:

• ☐ Inventory of all the team's certificates (in-house and regular freelancers), with expiry dates
• ☐ Identification of critical pilots: those whose certificate underpins recurring or contractual missions
• ☐ A renewal schedule spread across the year (avoid half the team retaking their exam the same month)
• ☐ Budget: sessions, travel, non-billable hours
• ☐ A paper trail: up-to-date certificates archived in the operation's DMS, visible at the first inspection
• ☐ Automatic alerts on every deadline (a management tool, not a sticky note)

Everything above exists in manual mode — spreadsheet, calendar, reminders. Dronops does it continuously: the team's certificates are tied to each pilot, deadlines trigger alerts at D−180/D−90/D−30/D−7, the revalidation engine recommends, between the A1/A3 attestation and the BAPD, which credential to handle first, and every mission automatically checks that the declared pilot holds the required privileges. On inspection day, the experience attestation is generated as a PDF.