How Canadian Airports Are Coordinating With Drone Pilots in 2026
RPAS WILCO's new Airport Safety Management network connects drone pilots with eight partner airports across Canada — from Halifax to Langley — for coordinated flights near controlled airspace.
A new way for pilots and airports to talk
For years, drone pilots planning missions near Canadian airports have faced the same friction: paperwork, phone calls, and uncertainty about whether the airport even knows you’re coming. Airports, for their part, had no real-time visibility into drone activity around their controlled airspace — only the ability to react after the fact.
Airport Safety Management changes that. It’s a two-way coordination platform built into RPAS WILCO that connects pilots with partner airports through a single workflow. Pilots get advance airport notices when their planned mission overlaps with controlled airspace. Airports get a clean, structured view of nearby drone operations — and a direct line of communication back to the pilots flying them.
The eight launch partners
Airport Safety Management is live today with eight partner airports across Canada:
- Ottawa Macdonald–Cartier International (YOW) — Canada’s capital airport
- Halifax Stanfield International (YHZ) — Atlantic Canada’s largest gateway
- Winnipeg Richardson International (YWG) — 24-hour cargo and passenger hub
- Montréal Metropolitan / MET (YHU) — Greater Montréal metropolitan field, formerly Saint-Hubert
- North Bay/Jack Garland (YYB) — adjacent to NORAD facilities
- Peterborough Airport (YPQ) — central Ontario regional hub
- Region of Waterloo International (YKF) — RPAS WILCO’s home airport
- Langley Regional (YNJ) — busiest GA airport in BC’s Lower Mainland
Each partner airport publishes its own coordination rules — by zone, runway, or time window — and pilots see them in-app the moment a planned mission triggers proximity detection.
How a coordinated mission works
When a pilot creates a mission in RPAS WILCO that overlaps with a partner airport’s airspace, the system automatically detects the proximity. The pilot sees an in-app airport notice with operational context the airport wants pilots to be aware of — runway activations, time-of-day considerations, sensitive operations.
The pilot then chooses whether to share mission details back with the airport. Sharing isn’t required to proceed with the flight, but pilots who do share gain three things:
- Faster clearance when context (altitude, timing, drone type) is already known
- Better airport coordination because the airport has the full mission context before the flight — alongside your NAV CANADA authorization, not as a substitute for it
- An audit-proof digital record that lives in both the pilot’s mission log and the airport’s portal
The airport sees submitted mission details in their portal, can review and respond, and can communicate back through the same RPAS WILCO app the pilot uses. No phone calls. No fax forms. No guessing.
Why this matters now
Canada’s commercial drone fleet has grown faster than anyone predicted. With Phase 2 of Transport Canada’s regulatory framework now in effect — including Level 1 Complex (L1C) operations and streamlined BVLOS approvals — the volume of legitimate drone activity near airports is only going up. The old model of treating drones as airspace anomalies doesn’t scale.
Airport Safety Management treats drones the way they should be treated in 2026: as an established, manageable category of airspace user that needs the same kind of structured coordination commercial aviation has had for decades. It’s a Safety Management System (SMS) extended to the drone era.
What’s next for the network
The launch network of eight is just the start. We’re in active conversations with more airports across Canada and expect to expand significantly through 2026. The platform is also designed to accommodate defence facilities, correctional sites, and other sensitive-airspace operators — the same coordination workflow applies whether the partner is a regional airport, a military base, or a federal institution.
If you operate a facility with airspace concerns, get in touch. Joining the network is straightforward, and you get visibility into drone activity that, until now, has largely been invisible to ground operators.
If you’re a drone pilot, the partner airports are already live — your next mission near YOW, YHZ, YWG, YHU, YYB, YPQ, YKF, or YNJ will route through Airport Safety Management automatically. No setup needed.