The short answer
There is no objectively “best” drone company in Albuquerque, and every company that ranks for that phrase is asserting the title about itself. That is not a useful answer for a producer with a shoot date.
What is verifiable is a company’s record. Four numbers and one list settle almost every hiring decision:
- How many years it has worked scripted sets — not how many years it has owned drones
- Its aviation liability limit, and whether that limit is standing or bought for your job
- Whether it can staff Local 600 union and non-union, so the answer does not change mid-prep
- Whether FAA and film-permit work happens in-house or gets pushed back to your production
- Which productions it has actually flown, named
CineDrones has worked sets since 2013, carries $5 million in aviation liability plus workers compensation, supplies both Local 600 union and non-union crews, handles FAA authorization and coordinates local film permitting in-house, and holds aerial or on-camera drone credits on more than forty productions. We work Albuquerque as one of ten markets, and the full aerial toolkit that operates out of Los Angeles is available here.
Ask every company on your list for the same five things. The ones that answer in specifics are the ones to call back.
What Albuquerque specifically demands
Albuquerque has the lightest legal burden of any major American production market and the heaviest airspace burden. New Mexico has no drone statute at all. What it has is a Class C shelf sitting on top of the entire urban core.
New Mexico has no state drone law
Four drone bills have failed since 2013, most recently SB 136, postponed indefinitely in January 2026. There is no state preemption statute and no filming-specific statute. Generally applicable law — voyeurism, wildlife rules — still applies, but the regulatory layer that shapes a shoot in New York or Chicago simply is not there.
The city defers entirely to the FAA
The Albuquerque Film Office issues no drone permit. Its FAQ states that all drone activity for filming must be approved by the Federal FAA. You need the city film permit for city property — streets, sidewalks, facilities, lots, structures and sensitive sites — but the drone layer is federal.
Lead times are the shortest of the ten markets
72 business hours before filming, excluding weekends and holidays. Closures or intermittent traffic control on Central Avenue: 7 business days. Production insurance is mandatory. Night filming between 10pm and 7am, pyrotechnics, firearms and vehicle chases all trigger special-circumstance handling.
Kirtland is the hard restriction
All UAS operations are prohibited from the surface to 400 ft AGL over Kirtland Air Force Base under FAA UAS NOTAM FDC 7/7282. Commercial operators need an FAA COA and approval from Kirtland Range Management. Kirtland sits directly adjacent to the Sunport and the southeast quadrant of the city.
Netflix anchors the market
Netflix Studios Albuquerque at Mesa del Sol runs 12 sound stages with production offices and a backlot, acquired in 2018 and expanded across 300 additional acres from 2022. New Mexico’s film production tax credit runs a 25% base to a 40% maximum with uplifts, under a $140 million FY2026 annual cap rising to $160 million by FY2028.
The airspace
This is the section that matters in Albuquerque. Albuquerque Sunport’s Class C covers essentially the whole urban core, with a contiguous block of roughly 158 zero-foot facility-map cells spanning the Sunport, Kirtland, UNM, Nob Hill and the Southeast Heights. Sampled ceilings elsewhere run low: around 200 ft over downtown and Civic Plaza, 150 ft over Old Town, 300 ft at the Rail Yards, 200 ft at the Netflix studios at Mesa del Sol dropping to 50 ft at Mesa del Sol centre. Double Eagle II adds a Class D block on the west side, with Petroglyph National Monument in a 100 ft grid. Unlike Chicago or Austin, a downtown or studio-adjacent Albuquerque aerial almost always needs an authorization, and low ceilings are the norm rather than the exception — which changes the shot design, not just the paperwork.
Rules change. Treat the above as a briefing for planning conversations rather than legal or regulatory advice, and confirm current requirements with the relevant authorities and your insurer before you shoot.
The checks that apply everywhere
Regardless of market, the same seven questions sort a working aerial department from a pilot with a drone.
- The insurance floor is $5 million, and it should already be in place. Most studio productions will not accept an aerial vendor below it. A company that has to buy up for your shoot is telling you what level it normally works at. Ask for the certificate in prep, and ask whether workers compensation is carried too.
- Part 107 is the entry ticket, not the qualification. Every legal commercial pilot holds one. What separates companies is the hard operations — flying over people under the FAA’s Subpart D categories or a waiver, at night, beyond visual line of sight, and inside controlled airspace.
- Local 600, both ways. Signatory scripted work generally requires the aerial camera position to be filled by an ICG Local 600 member; commercials and non-signatory work usually do not. The failure mode is hiring a company that can only staff one way.
- Permitting done, not delegated. Airspace and ground are two separate approvals from two different bodies. If a vendor sends the paperwork back to your line producer, price that time into the bid.
- Redundancy, because aircraft come down. Ask what happens when the primary aircraft is out of service at 2pm. Ask the same about the pilot.
- Payload range, because the shot picks the aircraft. Heavy-lift for a full-size cinema camera — the Freefly Alta X carries RED and ALEXA Mini. Mid-size stabilised for aerials that intercut with A-camera — the DJI Inspire 3 shooting 8K full-frame on swappable DL-mount lenses, and the Inspire 2 with the Super 35 X7. FPV for continuous moving shots through spaces nothing else fits, carrying anything from a GoPro up to cinema cameras. A company with one aircraft will tell you your shot suits that aircraft.
- Named credits, not logo walls. “We’ve worked with Netflix and HBO” is a claim any company can make after one day of second-unit work. A named production list is checkable.
The long version of each check, written for the Los Angeles market, is here.
The credit list
CineDrones has provided aerial cinematography, on-camera prop drones, stunt drones or aerial lighting on productions including:
Ozark · 9-1-1 · SEAL Team · Jack Ryan · Bosch · Goliath · Castle Rock · Doctor Sleep · NOS4A2 · Mayans M.C. · Modern Family · NCIS: New Orleans · American Horror Story: Cult · Fear the Walking Dead · Station 19 · The Politician · The Resident · Runaways · Raising Dion · Good Trouble · The Gifted · 24: Legacy · American Housewife · The Fix · The First 48 · Hell’s Kitchen · The Grand Tour · Basketball Wives · Shahs of Sunset · Bizaardvark · I Feel Bad · Kevin (Probably) Saves the World · Making It · The Leisure Seeker · Trial by Fire · First and Last · Spartan · TKO · You’re the Worst — and NFL broadcasts.
Two are written up in detail — what the production needed, what it took to fly, and what that demonstrates: 9-1-1, where we brought the look and the aerial design to the show from day one, and Ozark, where the aerials carried feel and drama into the visual language of the series.
When to hire somebody else
We would rather say this in prep than take a booking and disappoint a producer.
- If the job is real estate, weddings or single-operator social content, an aerial department is the wrong purchase. You do not need Local 600 crews and a $5M policy to shoot a listing.
- If the job is inspection, survey or mapping, hire a company that does that work. We fly for camera.
- If the schedule allows no rehearsal for a complex FPV move through a practical location, the honest answer is that the shot should be flown a different way, or the schedule should change.
- If the only thing that matters is the lowest number on the bid, someone will always be cheaper. What we will not do is quote a crew and a safety plan we would not actually staff.
How to run the comparison
Send every company on your shortlist the same message:
Shoot dates, location, and city. What is your standing aviation liability limit? Can you staff Local 600 and non-union? Who files the FAA authorization and who coordinates the film permit? What aircraft would you bring for this shot, and what is the backup? Name five productions you have flown.
The replies sort themselves. Specific answers with numbers and titles come from companies that have done the work.
Frequently asked
Do I need a drone permit to film in Albuquerque?
The City of Albuquerque does not issue a drone permit. The Albuquerque Film Office states that all drone activity for filming must be approved by the Federal FAA, so the drone layer is federal. You do still need a city film permit for filming on city property — streets, sidewalks, facilities, lots, structures and sensitive sites such as historical locations — submitted 72 business hours before filming, or 7 business days for closures or intermittent traffic control on Central Avenue.
Does New Mexico have a state drone law?
No. New Mexico has no enacted state drone statute. Four drone bills have failed since 2013, most recently SB 136, which was postponed indefinitely in January 2026, and no state preemption statute was found. Generally applicable laws such as the voyeurism statute and wildlife regulations still apply, but there is no filming-specific state drone law. In practice Albuquerque is regulated by FAA rules plus the flight restriction over Kirtland Air Force Base.
How high can you fly a drone in downtown Albuquerque?
Lower than most producers expect. Albuquerque Sunport’s Class C airspace covers essentially the entire urban core, and FAA facility-map ceilings in the city run low — around 200 ft over downtown and Civic Plaza, 150 ft over Old Town, 300 ft at the Rail Yards, and 200 ft at the Netflix studios at Mesa del Sol dropping to 50 ft at Mesa del Sol centre. There is a large contiguous block of zero-foot cells covering the Sunport, Kirtland Air Force Base, UNM and the Southeast Heights. Facility-map values are informational and change, so they get pulled fresh for the location and date, but the planning assumption in Albuquerque is a low ceiling and a required authorization.
More on this market: drone cinematography in Albuquerque · aerial cinematography · FPV drone pilot · Local 600 drone operators
CineDrones is a Hollywood-based aerial cinematography company working in Albuquerque and nine other markets nationwide. FAA Part 107 certified, $5M aviation liability, Local 600 union and non-union crews, flying since 2013.
Send us the shot and the dates — 310-905-9195. We will tell you what it takes, and we will tell you if it should be flown a different way.
