Civil Aviation consults the INE municipal register: what changes in your aeronautical procedures

Key data

If your company operates in the aeronautical sector or you have workers processing licences or ratings before the Dirección General de Aviación Civil, from 23 March 2026 they no longer need to provide a paper registration certificate. The Resolution published in the BOE on 30 March 2026 formalises the agreement by which Civil Aviation gains direct access to the municipal register managed by the INE.

The change is already operational and affects any aeronautical procedure in which proof of address through physical documentation was previously required.

What does this regulation establish?

The agreement between the Dirección General de Aviación Civil and the Instituto Nacional de Estadística, O.A. (INE) enables remote access to the municipal register database through a secure web service.

Until now, when a citizen or worker in the aeronautical sector needed to prove their address to Civil Aviation, they had to obtain and submit a registration certificate issued by their local council. With this agreement, that step disappears: Civil Aviation queries the data directly from the INE in real time.

The access falls within the policy of interoperability between public bodies, which allows administrations to share data with each other without requiring citizens to provide it repeatedly.

Economic and operational impact

The direct impact is not a new fee or additional cost: it is a saving in time and administration for aeronautical sector companies and their employees.

• The need to request and manage registration certificates from the relevant local council is eliminated.
• Processing times for aeronautical licences and ratings are reduced as they no longer depend on external documentation.
• Companies with several workers in the process of obtaining or renewing licences accumulate significant savings in administrative management.
• Errors or delays caused by expired, incorrect or late certificates are minimised.

For companies with operations or HR departments that regularly handle procedures before Civil Aviation, this change simplifies internal file preparation processes.

Who is affected?

• Airlines and air operators whose pilots, crew members and technical staff process licences or ratings before the Dirección General de Aviación Civil.
• Aviation schools and aeronautical training centres that manage student files before Civil Aviation.
• Aeronautical maintenance companies with staff requiring official ratings.
• Individual workers in the aeronautical sector who personally process their licences, renewals or ratings.
• Administrative agencies and professional firms acting as representatives in procedures before Civil Aviation.

Practical example

An airline based in Madrid takes on five new pilots who need to obtain their type ratings from the Dirección General de Aviación Civil. Until 22 March 2026, the operations department had to coordinate each pilot requesting their registration certificate from the local council of their municipality of residence, waiting for the processing period and submitting it to the file.

From 23 March 2026, Civil Aviation verifies each pilot's registration data directly with the INE via the web service. The airline does not need to manage that documentation, nor do the pilots need to request it. The file progresses without that intermediate step, reducing the total processing time and eliminating a common source of administrative delays.

What should companies do now?

1. Update documentation checklists for procedures before Civil Aviation: remove the registration certificate from the list of documents to be requested from workers.
2. Inform HR and operations departments that it is no longer necessary to manage or archive registration certificates for files submitted to Civil Aviation.
3. Review ongoing files: if there are open procedures where this certificate was still pending submission, check directly with Civil Aviation whether the agreement already applies to those files.
4. Update processes with external agencies acting as representatives in aeronautical procedures, so they also stop requesting this documentation from workers.
5. Verify that workers' registration data is up to date in the municipal register, as Civil Aviation will now query it directly from the INE. Outdated data in the register may cause issues during verification.

Official source

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. For specific decisions, please consult a qualified professional. Source: https://www.boe.es/diario_boe/txt.php?id=BOE-A-2026-7260