Just gone to make an application via Airportal and was shocked to see they’re now (well from Jan 1) charging £20/ application. Considering how many applications I’ve made in the past year that adds up to a small fortune. Will have to restrict my activity round here in future.
I’ve also filled in the form to advise them of intended flights just outside their airspace eg; Central pier, Stanley Park etc. If they’re charging £20 for that then I won’t be doing that anymore.
I believe Airportal is a private company, so it is probably just them imposing the charge, not the CAA ?
Are they charging that for a commercial flight?
Didn’t CAA rule that ATCs are not allowed to charge 
Not sure there’s a specific thread on that subject but I’ve definitely seen it discussed here somewhere.
Ahhhh, like the old Altitude Angel were doing too.
A quick search says
You generally need permission to fly in a UK Flight Restriction Zone (FRZ) around airports, and while the Civil Aviation Authority(CAA) doesn’t charge, the airport/Air Traffic Control (ATC) can charge “reasonable fees” for processing your request, especially for commercial flights, to cover costs. Flying in an FRZ is not inherently free; you must contact ATC and follow their specific process to get authorization, often requiring registration and potentially fees, as airports manage these zones for safety.
Key Points:
+VAT
That’s £24 quid per application, which might get denied 
Hmm, I thought CAA put something in place to prevent this extortion 
I don’t think there’s a way around it. When I bought my first little drone (Aug 2024), I rang Blackpool ATC enquiring about permission to fly, they said they didn’t accept applications direct and to submit it via Airportal. Which I’ve been doing for past year free of any charge. I think £20 a bit steep maybe it’s to put hobby flyers off.
It was me!!! We had it out with Lee-on-Solent over this very issue who didn’t get a penny.
@Seadog … Quote CAP722c and if they ignore it, report them to the CAA!
I just rang Blackpool ATC and asked if they were aware that Air Portal are now charging £24 quid, the guy on the phone said yes, he was.
I asked him if he was aware of CAP722C and section 3.2 and that the cost should not be passed on to UAS operators (thanks @uav_hampshire 
), his response was:
Ummmm… No, that’s above my pay grade.
He said we can email requests in to safeguarding@blackpoolairport.com and
[REDACTED]
Hopefully that’ll help in the short term.
Blackpool have always been great to drone ops in the past, I doubt this Air Portal charge was anything to do with them. Natalia is the ATS Manager, I’ll email her tomorrow and see if we can get a meeting setup to discuss longer term alternatives.
Air Portal have been in touch to say Blackpool Airport are imposing the fee, not them.
Waiting to hear back from Blackpool.
Was going to say, just checked and they also cover Glasgow Prestwick (though I’ll stick to just emailing them directly as it’s always been nice and easy), for which they aren’t charging a fee. So does look to be Blackpool what’s done it. 
Yes you’re right I selected the different areas covered by Airportal and none of them indicated a fee payable. However I did find this interesting, and worrying statement for Walney.
EGR 445 is a small area, protecting the yard where our nuclear deterrent carrying submarines are built. Doesn’t sound terribly shocking that they’d seek to ban drones which might be of use to a foreign power from overflight? 
They use multi million pound satellites instead.
Yes I understand sensitivity surrounding submarine manufacture,but Barrow as it’s own no fly zone covering that, this is mainly to the north and only just touches Barrow at its southern edge. Yet I can fly (at least no restrictions indicated on drone scene), right up peil channel, which is the navigable channel for barrow, right up to the docks and the area where they dock vessels carrying nuclear fuel, where I cannot fly over isolated areas to the north well away from Barrow. Not that I particularly want to just commenting.
My reading of the notice on the Air Portal page says that they’ll only deny applications for DJI drones if the request includes EGR445, which is a 1km radius circle. Presumably, outside of that they’ll treat applications for fly in the FRZ as normal.
Chalk one up for Drone Scene there. NATS has it as “A circle radius 0.5 NM centred on 540635N 0031410W SFC to 2000 FT ALT”, which is 0.92km. 
Edit: Wait, it’s a draw - my eyes have now adjusted to the different scales of those maps 
Hold the phone further away, we win
