A drone permit checklist for shooting in Morocco's medinas
Flying inside a UNESCO medina is rarely as simple as launching a drone. Permits, no-fly zones, police escorts, and the way we plan every flight before we leave the studio.
The medinas of Marrakech, Fez, and Essaouira are UNESCO World Heritage sites. Flying a drone inside one is not the same as flying one over a beach. We have been pulled over, escorted, and once asked to delete footage on the spot. This is the checklist we use before every flight, and the questions we ask every client before we sign the contract.
Morocco's drone law changed in 2024. The Direction Générale de l'Aviation Civile (DGAC) now requires a flight permit for any commercial drone operation, even inside city limits. The permit takes 10-15 working days to issue and costs 1,200 MAD. The paperwork is not optional, and showing up to a shoot without it is a guaranteed 3,000 MAD fine plus a potential impound. We file every permit before we quote the job.
The medina rule
UNESCO medinas in Morocco are restricted airspaces. Period. You can fly on the perimeter, but not inside. Marrakech's medina is bounded by the 16th-century ramparts — anything within those walls is off-limits without a written authorisation from the Ministry of Culture. We have that authorisation for three specific medina courtyards (the Bahia Palace, the Saadian Tombs, and one private riad we shoot monthly). Everything else is a no-fly zone.
- 01DGAC commercial flight permit (10-15 days, 1,200 MAD)
- 02Ministry of Culture authorisation for UNESCO sites
- 03Written permission from the property owner
- 04Police notification 24 hours in advance for medina work
- 05Insurance certificate (minimum 1M MAD third-party liability)
The gear that survives medina work
We fly a Mavic 3 Pro Cine for most medina work — small, quiet, 4/3 sensor. The Inspire 3 stays in the car. The medina streets are 1.5m wide and the GPS is patchy at best. We pre-program every flight, set RTH to 30m minimum, and always have a visual observer on the ground. The number of drone accidents in Marrakech medinas is high — we have personally recovered two drones from rooftops this year. The pilots who own the drones don't fly in the medinas.
“If the pilot you booked is the same person who owns the drone, they shouldn't be flying in the medina.”
What to do if a police officer stops you
Be polite. Show your permit, your insurance, your property owner authorisation, and the police notification receipt. Have all four on a single laminated card. Do not delete footage. Do not hand over the drone. Ask for the officer's name and badge number, and call our office immediately. We have a lawyer on retainer for exactly this situation. In 8 years of flying in Morocco, we have never had a permit revoked, but we have had to deploy the lawyer twice.
Drone work in Morocco is incredible — the light, the textures, the scale — but it is regulated, and the regulations are enforced. The pilots who skip the paperwork are the pilots who lose the drone. We are not the cheapest drone team in Marrakech, but we are the only ones who have never lost a drone, never had a permit revoked, and never had to delete footage.
