Drones have become one of the most useful tools in a production’s kit for capturing the River Thames – but the permission process behind that shot is rarely as quick as people might expect.
And film and TV productions that leave it to the last minute are usually the ones that end up rescheduling.
The timeline to secure the necessary permissions for drone filming on the Thames depends on what you’re flying, where, and how many drones are involved.
But there are clear minimum timescales set by the Port of London Authority (PLA), and knowing them early makes all the difference when you’re locking in a shoot date.
The PLA is responsible for the safety of everyone using the tidal Thames. So any drone flying on, near, or over the river needs to be notified to them – whatever the reason for the flight.
The PLA asks for a minimum of three working days’ notice, submitted through their Drone Online Notification Portal.
That’s a minimum, not a target – the PLA is clear that operators should notify them at the earliest possible opportunity, since this gives their team time to properly assess the flight’s impact on navigation, exclusion zones, and any potential river closures.
Notice of at least three working days also applies to a handful of specific circumstances, including drones taking off or landing on a vessel, or launching from the foreshore.
The timescale is considerably longer: a minimum of four weeks’ notice is required.
If your shoot involves several drones operating together – a display or a large-scale sequence, for example – it’s worth flagging as early as possible, as it changes the entire planning timeline for the shoot.
It’s important to note that drone permissions and a filming licence are two separate PLA processes.
If your drone flight is part of a filming or photography shoot – which covers pretty much all commercial productions on the water – you’ll need both PLA drone approval and a separate filming licence.
This applies to any filming involving boats and vessels, as well as filming on the foreshore, piers, or other river structures.
The PLA doesn’t have a fixed processing time for filming licences, as fees and lead times depend on the duration, complexity and purpose of the shoot. So it pays to submit the application well ahead of your target filming date, rather than assuming it’ll run in parallel with the drone notice period.
Wider promotional events on the river which may also require the use of drones – such as PR events and brand activations – are assessed by the PLA on a case-by-case basis.
It’s worth opening that conversation with the PLA as early as possible, since these events often carry their own river traffic management and safety requirements on top of any filming or drone permissions.
Not sure which permissions your shoot needs? Talk to Livett’s about drone filming on the Thames – we’ll help you map out the timeline before you apply.
PLA sign-off is only one part of the picture. Every drone flight on the Thames also needs to comply with Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) rules under the Drone and Model Aircraft Code, including safe distances from vessels and people, and restrictions on flying over crowds. This includes open-top passenger boats.
Depending on where you’re filming, you may also need:
None of these run to a single fixed timescale, which is exactly why productions filming in central London should build in extra lead time rather than assuming the PLA’s three working days covers everything.
A few things tend to push timelines out beyond the minimums:
These are exactly the kind of processes Livett’s helps productions navigate every day. Drone filming has been part of our work on the tidal Thames for years, sitting alongside the wider River Thames filming and marine coordination experience we’ve built up over four decades on the water.
We’ve supported countless drone projects on the water, from major film productions like James Bond and Mission: Impossible through to drone shows for HBO Max and The Rolling Stones.
We don’t issue drone approvals or filming licences ourselves, but our licences and permissions service means productions aren’t left to work out the PLA process alone. Having supported more than 500 productions on the river, we know what a strong marine proposal looks like – and we help shape one before it’s submitted, rather than leaving clients to find out what’s missing after the fact.
That can include advising on which permissions your shoot is likely to need, identifying which stakeholders should be consulted, and supporting the risk assessments and marine method statements that often sit behind a successful application.
For drone shoots specifically, that means connecting the dots between the PLA drone notification, the separate filming licence, and any additional consents – CAA, NATS, local authority, Met Police – so nothing is missed and nothing is left until the week before the shoot.
Where a project also needs marine coordination or the right drone filming boats and platforms to launch, land or track from the water, we bring that together as one joined-up plan rather than a series of separate bookings.
Because we work on the tidal Thames every day, we also know how tide, traffic and location sensitivity tend to shift a shoot’s real-world timeline – knowledge that’s impossible to get from the guidance documents alone.
| Type of flight | Minimum notice |
|---|---|
| Standard single-drone flight | 3 working days |
| Take-off/landing from a vessel or the foreshore | 3 working days |
| Multi-drone operation classed as an event | 4 weeks |
| Wider promotional/PR events on the river | Assessed case by case – agree with the PLA early |
These are PLA minimums where a fixed figure applies, not guarantees of approval within that window – and a separate filming licence is still needed for most commercial shoots.
The earlier you bring us in, the more time we have to help things run smoothly.
Get in touch with our team to talk through your shoot dates, and we’ll help you plan the permissions timeline alongside the right marine support.
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