Drone Laws in Cambodia

There Don’t Seem to Be Any Drone Laws in Cambodia

We haven’t found any drone laws for Cambodia in our research, with the exception of drone bans in Phnom Penh, Angkor Park, and around any historic temples.

That being said, we don’t recommend assuming that you can travel to Cambodia and fly your drone.

The absence of drone laws doesn’t necessarily mean you can fly wherever or however you like in Cambodia—in fact, it could mean that authorities will be generally opposed to the use of drones, especially by tourists.

The same cautionary note applies to bringing a drone through customs. Sometimes, when a country has no drone-specific laws, some customs officials choose to confiscate drones and some choose not to—but it’s almost impossible to know what you’ll run into until you’re actually there with your drone.

For countries that do have drone / sUAS regulations, it’s typically the country’s national or civil aviation authority that sets and enforces those regulations. To make sure you don’t get in trouble or get your drone taken away, we recommend contacting the Cambodia State Secretariat of Civil Aviation (SSCA): ssca-int@civilaviation.gov.kh / +855 23 890 198

At a minimum, a good rule of thumb for flying in Cambodia would be to follow these rules for flying your drone (these rules are taken from the U.S.’s Federal Aviation Administration’s rules for flying a drone):

• Avoid flying within five miles of an airport
• Keep the drone within visual line-of-sight
• Fly at or below 400 feet
• Fly during daylight or civil twilight
• Fly at or under 100 mph
• Yield right of way to manned aircraft
• Do not fly directly over people
• Do not fly from a moving vehicle, unless in a sparsely populated area
• Do not fly your drone in Phnom Penh, Angkor Park, or around any historic temples.

Permission to fly in Phnom Penh can be acquired by obtaining a permit from the Cinema and Cultural Diffusion Department and the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts of Cambodia. To fly in Angkor Park, you will need a permit from the Authority for the Protection and Management of Angkor and the Region of Siem Reap and clearance from the air traffic control because of the proximity of the temple to the airport.

Know something we don’t about drone laws in Cambodia? Send us an email at support[at]horizonap[dot]com. We are not international aviation attorneys and do our best to keep this page up-to-date for drone pilots, but the reality is that given the pace of the small unmanned aerial system (sUAS) industry and how governments are responding, drone regulations in Cambodia can change throughout the year, and those changes can be hard to track. If we missed something, please reach out to let us know.