Landing permits and overflight permits: the complete guide

01What is a landing permit?

A landing permit is a state's authorisation for a foreign-registered aircraft to land at one of its airports. Its civil aviation authority issues it for a specific aircraft, date and purpose of flight. It does not replace the airport slot, any PPR or the handling booking, which are arranged separately. Our landing permits service covers the full process.

02What is an overflight permit?

An overflight permit is a state's authorisation for a foreign aircraft to cross its airspace without landing. It is issued against a routing, usually the FIR entry and exit points, and is valid for a time window around the planned entry time. See our overflight permits service.

03Landing permit vs overflight permit

Both are issued by the civil aviation authority, but they cover different things:

• Scope: an overflight permit covers transit through the airspace; a landing permit covers arrival at an airport, and often the departure too.
• Requirements: landing permits usually need more documents, such as the AOC, insurance, crew and passenger lists and, for charters, the charter contract.
• Commercial traffic: a landing permit's purpose, whether a technical stop, passenger or cargo traffic, or fifth-freedom rights, decides which approvals you need. Overflight permits don't involve traffic rights.
• Lead times: landing permits, especially for charter and cargo flights, generally take longer than overflight permits.

A single flight can need both: an overflight permit for each country crossed and a landing permit at the destination or a technical stop.

04Do I need an overflight or landing permit?

There is no single rule. Scheduled airlines mostly fly under bilateral air services agreements. Non-scheduled commercial flights (charter, ad hoc cargo) need permits in most countries. Private flights need them in some countries and not others, and state aircraft always need diplomatic clearance. The answer for your flight comes from checking every country on the route against the flight type, the aircraft's registry and the cargo.

05How to get a landing or overflight permit

The process is broadly the same everywhere:

• Confirm which countries on the routing require permits for your flight type.
• Gather the aircraft, operator, crew and flight documents each authority asks for.
• Submit the request to each civil aviation authority (or, for state aircraft, through diplomatic channels), through its portal, by email or through an agent.
• Follow the request up until the permit number is issued, and pass it to the crew and the flight plan.
• Revise the permit if the schedule, routing or aircraft changes.

Doing this yourself works for occasional flights to familiar countries. For multi-country routings, short-notice flights or countries with complex rules, a flight support provider saves time and avoids delays at the FIR boundary.

06How long does an overflight permit take?

Routine overflight permits are often issued within one to three working days, but some states ask for a week or more, and diplomatic clearances can take several weeks. Landing permits for charter and cargo flights generally take longer than overflights. Working hours, weekends and public holidays at the authority add time; some authorities process requests 24/7.

07Documents required for a landing permit

Requirements differ between countries, but prepare these and you will cover most requests:

• Certificate of registration and certificate of airworthiness
• Insurance certificate (some states set minimum cover or require war-risk cover)
• Air operator certificate (AOC) for commercial flights
• Noise certificate
• Crew licences and medicals; crew and passenger lists with passport details
• Schedule (UTC), routing, aircraft type, MTOW and call sign
• Purpose of flight, plus the charter contract or cargo manifest where relevant
• Handling confirmation at the destination airport