Free to Fly: New UAS and AAM Flexibilities from the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024 Merit More Attention

The 2024 FAA Reauthorization Act (the Act), signed into law on May 16, 2024, brought significant developments for the unmanned aircraft system (UAS or drone) and advanced air mobility (AAM) industries by way of expanding existing programs[1], establishing new authorities[2], and requiring the FAA to further integrate new entrant aircraft into the National Airspace System (NAS).[3] Despite having received little attention to date, Congress provided three pivotal flexibilities to the FAA in the Act that the agency can leverage to advance UAS and AAM operations without engaging in the lengthy and burdensome 14 CFR part 11 exemption process. Operators, manufacturers, and other interested industry parties should become familiar with these statutory provisions, discussed below, during their regulatory planning and determine whether it would be appropriate for their concept of operations to request to avail themselves of the process that Congress seems to have intended the FAA to exercise.

First, Section 920 of the Act extends and expands the BEYOND program.[4] The BEYOND program is an FAA-established program that developed out of the UAS Integration Pilot Program (IPP).[5] It was established on October 26, 2020, as a four-year initiative; however, the Act extends it until a date on which the Administrator determines that the program is no longer necessary or useful.[6] It also expands the program to additional state, local, and tribal governments as well as expanding permitted operations under its umbrella to new and emerging aviation concepts and technologies “to evaluate and inform FAA policies, rulemaking, and guidance related to the safe integration of such concepts and technologies into the NAS.”[7] Last and most notably, the Act provides statutory waiver authority to the FAA. This authority allows the Administrator to waive requirements of 49 U.S.C. 44711, including related regulations, under any BEYOND program agreement, to the extent consistent with aviation safety.[8]

Accordingly, use of this authority limits the FAA’s waiver of regulatory requirements to those related to 49 U.S.C. 44711, which contains a series of statutory prohibitions.[9] For new entrants, the most pertinent are the prohibition on operating a civil aircraft in air commerce without an airworthiness certificate and a prohibition on serving as an airman without an airman certificate and corresponding regulatory requirements, which are typically exempted under the authority of 49 U.S.C. 44807 with a part 11 exemption. However, for BEYOND program participants and operators with which they have an agreement, the Act provides that the FAA could issue a waiver directly to the operator as an alternative to an exemption.

Assuming that the other two conditions of the statutory authority are met – that the operation would be occurring under a BEYOND program agreement, and that the conditions of the waiver ensure that the operation can be conducted consistent with aviation safety – use of this authority offers an alternative to the rigidity of the part 11 exemption process, which requires the agency make a finding that the grant of exemption be in the public interest and that the grant of exemption would either not adversely affect safety or that it would provide a level of safety at least equal to that provided by the rule from which an exemption is sought.[10] Changes to an exemption also generally require a petition for amendment to the original grant of exemption, which in essence restarts the petition process.

As an additional note, in Section 6 of the recent Executive Order (E.O.) 14307, “Unleashing American Drone Dominance,”[11] the E.O. specifically delineates that the newly-established Electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing Integration Pilot Program (eIPP) would be an extension of the BEYOND program, which is consistent with the utility of the Sec. 920 waiver authority described previously for new and emerging aviation concepts and technologies. This linkage offers immense flexibility to AAM entities who may be associated with an eIPP site who can apply for a waiver to test operations without an airworthiness certificate for their aircraft, airman certificate for their personnel, or even an air carrier certificate for air carrier operations.[12] The FAA recently published a Federal Register notice soliciting proposals for participation in the eIPP[13].

A parallel concept exists in the statutory waiver authority offered to the UAS Test Ranges[14] under Section 925, codified at 49 U.S.C. 44803. The Test Ranges actually have a statutory exemption from any regulations related to 49 U.S.C. 44711 for UAS operations only, which is applied automatically, also new from the 2024 Act.[15] This would not seem to permit the Test Ranges to, for example, allow operations without a certificate of authorization or waiver (COA or waiver) for BVLOS operations under 14 CFR 91.113, or other regulations not derived from 49 U.S.C. 44711 – it only explicitly provides automatic exemption from those statutory requirements and the associated regulations related to Sec. 44711.

However, of particular note, Test Ranges can also obtain a Sec. 44711 statutory and regulatory waiver like the BEYOND program waiver described previously for other than activities directly related to the integration of unmanned aircraft systems into the NAS, so long as the activity is necessary to inform the development of regulations, standards, or policy for integrating new types of flight systems into the NAS.[16] This offers the same flexibility outside of the part 11 exemption process to AAM operators and other types of non-UAS operations that are new types of flight systems who have a relationship with a Test Range, as is offered to UAS and AAM BEYOND program operators. The safety standard here is also identical to the BEYOND program – operations under the waiver must simply be consistent with aviation safety.[17]

In addition to flexibility for operators fortunate enough to be involved in the BEYOND program or working under authority of a Test Range, the true silver bullet Congress provided the FAA is the waiver authority described in Sec. 927, codified at 49 U.S.C. 44807(e), which allows the Administrator of the FAA to “exercise the authorities described in this section, including waiving applicable parts of title 14, Code of Federal Regulations, without initiating a rulemaking or imposing the requirements of part 11 of title 14, Code of Federal Regulations, to the extent consistent with aviation safety.”

This authority is perhaps the most substantial grant of discretion ever provided to the FAA for UAS operations. It seems to permit the FAA, where it deems appropriate, to waive any regulations within 14 CFR that it would otherwise provide to UAS operators in the form of a part 11 exemption. Certain regulations, such as 14 CFR 91.113 and 91.119, are already subject to waiver by regulation in § 91.905. Significantly, however, this provision also permits statutory waiver of such regulations as 14 CFR 91.7, the requirement for an aircraft to be in an airworthy condition (that is, to hold a certificate of airworthiness), or 14 CFR 61.3, the requirement for a pilot flight crewmember to hold a pilot certificate for any UAS operator, not just one associated with a special integration program such as BEYOND or the Test Ranges.

Although Sec. 44807 authority is limited to UAS operations as a general matter, the agency seems to view UAS operations as encompassing aircraft weighing up to and including 1,320 pounds, which aligns with proposed part 108[18] and the statutory definitions of regional and urban air mobility, which include operations of aircraft greater than 1,320 pounds.[19] However, the agency is also not precluded from considering that a UAS may exceed that weight threshold, as signaled by the agency’s discussion of potential waiver authority in a footnote of the part 108 Notice of Proposed Rulemaking.[20]

The FAA has not yet publicly issued any waivers under this provision, so its utility, associated conditions and limitations, and possible constraints on its use by the agency remain to be seen. Regardless, this waiver authority and the other waiver authorities described in this post remain powerful tools in the FAA’s toolbelt to expedite approvals to operators who may be stymied by the process considerations associated with a part 11 exemption.

ENDNOTES

1. Section 920(b), FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024 (Public Law [Pub. L.] 118-63); 49 USC 44803(a)(2)(B).
2. Section 920 of Pub. L. 118-63, 49 U.S.C. 44803(f)(2), 44807(e).
3. 49 U.S.C. 44811; Sec. 952 of Pub. L. 118-63.
4. Section 920, Pub. L. 118-63.
5. BEYOND | Federal Aviation Administration.
6. Section 920(a), Pub. L. 118-63.
7. Section 920(b)(1).
8. Section 920(b)(3).
9. See 49 U.S.C. 44711(a)(1)-(11).
10. 14 CFR 11.81.
11. See Sec. 6 of E.O. 14307, available at https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/06/unleashing-american-drone-dominance/.
12. 49 U.S.C. 44711 (a)(1)-(4).
13. Electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing and Advanced Air Mobility Integration Pilot Program: Establishment and Request for Proposals, September 16, 2025 (on public inspection September 12, 2025), available at https://federalregister.gov/d/2025-17844 and https://public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2025-17844.pdf.
14. For more information, see UAS Test Site Program | Federal Aviation Administration.
15. 49 U.S.C. 44803(d).
16. 49 U.S.C. 44803(f)
17. Id at (f)(2).
18. See proposed § 108.800(b)(3), Normalizing Unmanned Aircraft Systems Beyond Visual Line of Sight Operations, August 7, 2025, 90 FR 38212 at 38383.
19. Sec. 951(3)(B) and (4)(B), Pub. L. 118-63.
20. See footnote 93, 90 FR 38212 at 38263.