Hi All,
Just thought i would share my recent experience of flying from London Gatwick to Cancun with TUI…
I was initially worried about travelling with my drone (Mavic) after seeing some spooky posts on other forums from people who were clearly on the wind up or just got very unlucky in their own experience!
I carried the Mavic in my carry on bag, inside the Fly More Combo bag along with the spare batteries (both of the spares in LiPO bags, the third in the drone) and the remote and other bits. Inside my carry on bag i had plenty of electronics such as headphones, chargers etc ready for the long flight. I had taken the props off as i have been told that sometimes these look strange in the security machines, they were all packed inside the DJI bag.
Upon arrival to Cancun we went through the normal process, filled in the immigration cards and went through immigration control. I made no reference to the drone whatsoever on the card, as I was not importing the drone.
Our bags (all of them, including carry on) were then put through another security machine and nothing was flagged up as expected. I picked up my bags and was then invited to press a red button…
This is the red button lottery, when it goes green you get through but if it goes red you are subject to a full inspection of your bags. Thankfully when I pressed the button it went green, so straight through I went!
Whilst in Mexico, i was able to fly on the beach without issues but i decided not to take it to Chichen Itza, Coba and Tulum as i have been told that drones are banned from these destinations.
The way back was again uneventful, nothing flagged up, no questions asked at all.
From my experience I would happily take my drone with me again to Mexico, as I had no issues on either side, but the red button experience wasn’t enjoyable. I doubt anything would have happened but I didn’t want to be in the position to find out.
