Bali and Komodo drone permits, and the requirement that comes first

Most guides to flying a drone in Bali or Komodo describe a sequence of forms. The harder fact sits earlier than any form, in the requirements the Indonesian civil aviation authority sets for the certificate everything else depends on.

The requirement that comes first

Indonesia's rules for small drones are Civil Aviation Safety Regulation Part 107, issued as Ministerial Regulation PM 63 of 2021 and recorded in the government legal database as "Peraturan Keselamatan Penerbangan Sipil Bagian 107 (Civil Aviation Safety Regulations Part 107)", covering small unmanned aircraft systems.

A briefing on that regulation by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, written by one of its own aircraft operations inspectors, lists what a remote pilot certificate requires:

Persyaratan mendapatkan sertifikat remote system pesawat udara kecil tanpa awak : 1. Warga Negara Indonesia; 2. Minimum berusia 17 (tujuh belas) tahun; 3. Memiliki kakampuan berbahasa Inggris

Translated: the requirements to obtain a small unmanned aircraft remote pilot certificate are, first, Indonesian citizen; second, minimum age 17; third, English language ability. The typographical errors are the source's own.

The first item is the one to read twice. On the face of that document, the certificate is for Indonesian citizens.

Registration points the same way. The same briefing says a drone may be registered where it is:

Dimiliki dan diajukan oleh WNI atau badan hukum Indonesia

owned and submitted by an Indonesian citizen or Indonesian legal entity, or:

Dimiliki oleh WNA atau badan hukum asing dan dioperasikan oleh WNI atau badan hukum Indonesia untuk jangka waktu tertentu sesuai perjanjian

owned by a foreign national or foreign legal entity and operated by an Indonesian citizen or Indonesian legal entity for a set period under an agreement. A foreign owner appears in the rule, but paired with an Indonesian operator.

That is what the regulator publishes. Whether a particular visitor's situation falls inside or outside it is a question for the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, and this article is not legal advice.

Registration, weight and validity

Registration runs through SIDOPI, the drone, pilot and operation approval system, at its own portal. A separate DGCA deck on SIDOPI gives the band it covers as "Untuk kategori Drone >250 gram dan <25 kg", the drone category above 250 grams and below 25 kilograms, lists the acceptable identity documents as "Tanda Pengenal Pemohon (KTP/SIM/Passport)", national ID, driving licence or passport, and records that the certificate has a "Masa Berlaku 3 tahun", a validity of three years.

A passport appearing in that list is worth noticing, and it is not the same thing as the citizenship requirement above being lifted.

Two systems are easily confused, and the confusion is common enough to be worth naming. The DGCA launched SIDOPI-GO and SIPUDI together on 14 June 2022. SIDOPI-GO is the drone system. SIPUDI is "sistem Pendaftaran Pesawat Udara Indonesia", the Indonesian aircraft registration system, "untuk proses penerbitan sertifikat pendaftaran pesawat udara secara daring", for issuing aircraft registration certificates online. Several commercial guides describe a Bali drone portal under a similar name. On the DGCA's own announcement, SIPUDI is the aircraft register.

Where and when a drone may fly

The same DGCA briefing lists what an operator may not do. Translated, and abbreviated: not at night, not beyond visual line of sight, not more than one aircraft at once, not carrying dangerous goods, not over crowds, and not in restricted or prohibited airspace or around aerodromes. The numeric limits sit in one sentence:

Mengoperasikan Pesawat Udara Kecil Tanpa Awak melebihi kecepatan 87 (delapan puluh tujuh) knot, ketinggian lebih dari 120 (serratus dua puluh) meter, serta kondisi jarak pandang dibawah 4.8 (empat koma delapan) kilometer.

Translated: operating above 87 knots, at a height of more than 120 metres, or in visibility below 4.8 kilometres.

The figure in the regulator's wording is 120 metres. Guides that give it as 400 feet are converting, and 150 metres, which also circulates, is not in this document at all. Part 107 Amendment 1 also describes its own scope as covering aircraft under 25 kilograms "untuk keperluan hobi dan rekreasional", for hobby and recreational purposes, and not for air transport activity. Work for payment is a different question again.

National parks charge separately, and the figure changed

Komodo is a national park, and Indonesia's conservation areas run their own charging regime on top of aviation rules. It was reset by Government Regulation 36 of 2024 on non-tax state revenue at the environment and forestry ministry.

A press release from the Sulawesi Selatan conservation agency, numbered SP.07/K.8/TU/Humas/2/2025 and dated 25 February 2025, reproduces the national tariff table. The drone line reads:

Pungutan Kegiatan Penggunaan/ Menerbangkan Drone di Taman Nasional / Taman Wisata Alam / Taman Buru / Suaka Margasatwa

charged "Per Unit per hari", per unit per day, at 2,000,000 rupiah.

That agency administers South and West Sulawesi rather than Komodo. The tariff it is applying is the national one, which is why it is useful here, but a reader should treat it as the national figure rather than as Komodo's own notice.

The same release sets out what the conservation area entry permit, SIMAKSI, covers: research and development, science and education, film-making both commercial and non-commercial, documentary film-making, expeditions, and journalistic activity, and it adds that a holder "wajib membayar pungutan sesuai dengan ketentuan peraturan perundang-undangan", must pay the charges set by the applicable regulations. Commercial filming carries its own line: 20,000,000 rupiah per package per location for a foreign national, against 3,000,000 for an Indonesian.

Note what that list does and does not say. Flying a drone appears in the tariff table as a charge. SIMAKSI is described around research, filming and journalism. Whether a given flight needs the permit as well as the fee is exactly the question to put to the park.

What could not be checked, and it is the Komodo half

The Komodo National Park authority publishes its own drone and SIMAKSI pages at tnkomodo.ksdae.kehutanan.go.id. Every one of them returned HTTP 502 across four attempts through two different fetchers on 8 September 2026, as did siora.id, the portal commercial guides name for park permits. The parent ksdae.kehutanan.go.id served normally in the same minute, so this was that host rather than a network fault.

So the park's own current requirements, its lead times and its fee schedule are not reported here. Nothing in this article is quoted from a page that could not be opened, and the gap is stated rather than filled from tour operator summaries, which is where almost every search result for Komodo drone permits leads.

Before travelling

Ask the Directorate General of Civil Aviation what registration and certification your situation needs, given the citizenship wording above, and ask Balai Taman Nasional Komodo directly what it requires for a drone and how long it takes. Figures move: the park tariff was reset in 2024 and applied through 2025, and an older guide will still be quoting the previous one.

This article reports what those authorities have published and where. It is not legal advice, and the authorities themselves are the only source that can tell you what applies on the day you fly.