Filming at Dubai's airports fifteen working days, and the order the approvals come in
Almost every campaign that opens on arrival has the same beats in the treatment. The aircraft on approach, the walk through the terminal, the moment at the barrier. They are written before anybody asks what filming at an airport actually involves, and by the time somebody does, the date is already promised. A filming permit for Dubai airport is not one approval, and the approvals do not run in parallel. This guide is for the airline, hotel or travel-adjacent marketing lead whose campaign runs through a terminal. It covers the decision that sets the calendar, the order the permissions have to be obtained in, what the operator asks for, which shots need permission you may not get, and why an aerial is a separate project.
The one line to hold onto
The commission permit does not come first. Dubai Airports gives a preliminary approval, and only on the strength of that is the location permit sought, through a local production agency. Getting that order wrong is how a fifteen working day process becomes a missed quarter.
A filming permit for Dubai airport starts with one question: landside or airside
Dubai Airports puts the scope in a single sentence. All filming, photography and airport tours at Dubai International and Dubai World Central need a series of written approvals and permits. Photography sits inside the same regime as filming, so a stills shoot is not the lighter case people assume, and no crew size is published below which any of this stops applying.
Landside means the public terminal areas before security. Airside means beyond it. Everything else follows from which of those your treatment needs.
For landside, written permission is required from Dubai Airports and from Dubai Police. Two authorities, not one. Approved landside requests can be processed within three working days, and the page attaches a condition to that figure: provided all required documents are submitted. Security passes are not required landside, where written permission is enough.
For airside, the notice periods are longer and they are anchored to different events, which is worth reading slowly. Requests involving airside locations must be received fifteen working days in advance, with all necessary documents submitted at least seven working days prior to the filming date. Urgent requests are handled on a case-to-case basis, and still require all necessary documents at least three working days prior to the shoot. Airside also adds an airport security pass for each crew member and for equipment.
Note what that means. Urgent handling is discretionary rather than an entitlement, and the seven days runs back from the shoot rather than from the fifteen-day deadline.
This is the third of the Journal's articles on place permissions in Dubai, after the piece on beaches, parks and the desert and the one on filming on the water.
The order matters more than the paperwork
Most productions assume the permits can be chased simultaneously. At the airport they cannot, because one is a precondition of the next.
Dubai Airports states that commercial shoots at the airport require a location permit from the Dubai Film and TV Commission, obtained through local production agencies. It then sets out the sequence: based on the preliminary approval from Dubai Airports, the applicant can approach the commission to seek the necessary approvals and permits.
Two things follow, and both are commercially significant. The commission permit is downstream of the operator's preliminary approval, so a production that starts with the commission is starting in the wrong place and will be sent back. And the route to that permit runs through a local production agency, which means a brand or an overseas agency cannot file the airport location permit for itself.
There is a wrinkle to be straight about. The Dubai Airports page carrying these requirements is published with a date of 18 January 2021, which is very likely why it names the Dubai Film and TV Commission. Separately, the Dubai Government Media Office records that Decree No. 67 of 2024 transferred that commission from the Dubai Development Authority to operate under the Dubai Media Council, and that the same announcement described a newly formed Dubai Films and Games Commission being established under the Council to succeed it. This article reports the operator's own wording and the institutional change side by side. Which office issues that location permit today is not something to guess at, and the commission's own processing time was not retrieved, so treat it as sitting on top of Dubai Airports' notice periods.
There is a third step in that chain worth connecting, because it compounds the first two. The per-person security pass paperwork sits downstream of the commission permit, which itself sits downstream of Dubai Airports' preliminary approval. Three sequential stages, each waiting on the one before it, is what the fifteen working days is really measuring.
Good to know
The operator's published requirements carry a 2021 page date, while its downloads panel offers a document titled for 2022, so the page and its attachments do not agree on vintage. Confirm the current position with Dubai Airports before building a schedule on either. The structure is unlikely to have loosened, but the named bodies may have moved.
What Dubai Airports asks for, and why the storyboard comes first
Good to know
Collect passports, visas, photographs and work IDs when the crew is booked rather than in the final week, and check that nobody is carrying an uncancelled pass from another airport stakeholder.
The request itself goes in on company letterhead, and it carries purpose, date, time, exact locations, a storyboard summary, duration, a crew list and an equipment list.
The storyboard summary deserves attention, because it inverts the order most productions work in. Ordinarily a location is held while the creative keeps moving and the treatment settles late. Here the boards form part of the request, so the idea has to be resolved before the permission process starts. A concept still in motion is a concept that cannot be submitted.
For airside, the security pass application adds a longer list, and the parts that matter most to a schedule are the ones that repeat per person: a completed and signed pass application security form with every blank filled, a passport copy, a UAE visa page copy or entry stamp for visa-exempt non-residents, a passport-sized photograph on a white background, a copy of the work ID and a copy of the national ID. Alongside those sit a no objection letter from employers, published for UAE based companies, where crew are not employed by the applicant company, a no objection letter from a sponsor for freelancers, and a no objection letter from the relevant free zone authority where a sponsor is based in one. Equipment is listed with brand names and serial numbers, not serial numbers alone. That is not the complete published list, and anyone preparing an application should work from the page rather than from this summary.
Three items on that page are worth pulling out because they change plans rather than paperwork. A pass previously issued by another airport stakeholder must be cancelled and returned to the pass office before a new application can be processed. Laptops and tablets need a separate equipment pass to go beyond the security checkpoint. And for UAE residents, the page states that if an applicant holds a student visa it is illegal for them to work and the application is automatically rejected, which is a crew eligibility rule rather than an administrative one.
The scheduling consequence is the section's real point. Most of this repeats per person. A crew of ten means ten security forms, ten passport copies, ten photographs, ten work IDs. At an airport, crew size is a lead-time decision before it is a cost decision, which is the reverse of how crew size is usually discussed.
The shots that need permission you may not get
This is the section that rewrites treatments, and it is better read before the concept is signed off.
Filming security, police, customs and immigration checkpoints and their uniformed personnel is strictly prohibited without prior written permission from the relevant authority. Read the whole sentence rather than the first half. It is a permission question rather than an absolute bar, but the permission comes from an authority the page does not name, and the scope reaches uniformed personnel as well as the checkpoints themselves. That second part is the one most likely to catch an ordinary terminal walk-through, where a uniformed officer passes through the back of frame.
Dubai Airports does not permit film crews to engage with passengers without written permission. Filming any passenger interaction also sits on the list of areas needing special clearance. Between them, those remove the vox pop, the unscripted passenger moment and the staged reunion from the treatment unless cleared in advance.
Crew are not permitted to carry dangerous equipment or hazardous items, and the published examples are a pocketknife, a Swiss knife, screwdrivers, box cutters, masking tape, ropes and other items universally prohibited at airports. Masking tape and screwdrivers are the ones to read twice, because they are in every camera case and on every grip cart. This is a kit-preparation question rather than a policy abstraction.
Special clearance is also required for the Air Traffic Control tower interior, the apron including ramp, taxiways and runways, the baggage handling system, and facilities not owned or managed by Dubai Airports.
The reframe worth carrying: at most locations the idea comes first and the location serves it. At an airport the constraints come first, and a concept written without them will be rewritten by them. It is cheaper to write with them, and to seek the written permissions early where a sequence genuinely depends on them.
Watch out
If the campaign depends on passenger interaction, or on a checkpoint or uniformed personnel appearing in frame, that is a written permission to obtain in advance rather than a detail to resolve on the day.
Anything airborne is a separate project
The aerial of the terminal is the shot most often added late, and the airport is the worst place in the emirate to add it.
Dubai's rules are published as DCAR-UAS Issue 02, reference DCAA/DCAR/2024/00010, last revised 27 February 2025. On separation, the regulation sets a rule rather than a fixed airport perimeter: a safety distance shall be calculated at a ratio of 1 to 1, meaning the distance to any people or object shall be at a minimum equal to the height of the aircraft above the ground. Operations must then be planned to ensure a safety distance from assemblies of uninvolved people, from buildings and structures, from other unmanned aircraft, and from airports, heliports, helicopter landing sites and airfields. Operations shall not fly over military areas, over prohibited, restricted or danger areas, or over any other airspace restricted for operations as determined by the DCAA. No separate fixed standoff distance for airports appears in the text examined, so any perimeter figure quoted to you should come with its source.
The authorisation tier matters here too. Basic Category is the minimum commercial authorisation for photography and filming generally, but the regulation limits that category to uncontrolled airspace, within visual line of sight, from a fixed pilot position and up to 122 metres. DCAR-UAS does not itself classify the airspace at Dubai International or Dubai World Central, referring classification out to a separate airspace regulation that was not examined for this article. So the honest position is that an airport aerial cannot be assumed to sit inside the Basic Category, and the tier is a question to settle with the authority rather than an assumption to carry into a budget.
The full aerial stack, including the federal steps, is set out in the Journal's articles on beaches and on filming on the water. The conclusion for an airport treatment is that an aerial belongs in the plan from the first conversation, at a higher authorisation tier than a routine exterior.
How we would plan an airport shoot
The sequence follows from what is published, and it is not the sequence most productions default to.
Decide landside or airside before the treatment is written, because that choice sets both the calendar and whether Dubai Police are in the approval chain. Lock the creative early enough that a storyboard summary can go in with the request. Go to Dubai Airports first for preliminary approval, then to the commission on the strength of it, through a local production agency, because that is the published order. Collect crew documents at booking, to the published specification. And keep the unit small, because at an airport the paperwork scales with headcount.
Two approximations from our own quoting are worth stating here. Batching several videos into one shoot day saves more than 30 per cent against shooting them separately, and a single shoot day yields around five finished videos depending on how large each one is. At an airport, where the permission is scarcer than the crew, planning a campaign as one cleared day rather than three separate ones is close to the whole argument.
Common questions
Do we need permission to film at Dubai airport?
Yes. Dubai Airports states that all filming, photography and airport tours at Dubai International and Dubai World Central need a series of written approvals and permits. Photography is named alongside filming, so a stills shoot sits in the same regime, and no crew size threshold is published below which the requirement stops applying.
How far ahead do we have to apply?
Landside requests can be processed within three working days, provided all required documents are submitted. Airside requests must be received fifteen working days in advance, with all necessary documents submitted at least seven working days prior to the filming date. Urgent requests are handled case to case and still need documents at least three working days before the shoot.
Which permit do we get first?
Dubai Airports first. Commercial shoots need a location permit from the film commission obtained through local production agencies, and the published sequence is that the applicant approaches the commission based on the preliminary approval from Dubai Airports. Starting with the commission is starting in the wrong place.
What does it cost?
No fee appears anywhere on the Dubai Airports filming page. That is a statement about that page rather than a conclusion that filming is free, and it should not be read as one.
Can we film passengers arriving?
Not without written permission. Dubai Airports does not permit crews to engage with passengers without it, and filming any passenger interaction is listed among the areas requiring special clearance. Plan around cast you have booked, or obtain the permission before the concept is signed off.
Can we film at passport control?
Only with prior written permission from the relevant authority. The published rule prohibits filming security, police, customs and immigration checkpoints and their uniformed personnel without that permission, so it is a permission to seek early rather than an absolute bar, and the uniformed-personnel part can catch a terminal walk-through as well.
Is a photography shoot treated more lightly than a film crew?
Not on the published wording. The operator's scope sentence names filming, photography and airport tours together, so plan a stills shoot on the same basis, including the landside and airside distinction and the document set.
What to hold onto, in one pass
Landside or airside decides the calendar, and landside needs written permission from Dubai Airports and Dubai Police. Landside can be processed within three working days provided all documents are in. Airside requests must be received fifteen working days in advance, with documents at least seven working days before the filming date, and urgent requests are case to case with documents at least three working days before the shoot. The request goes on letterhead with purpose, date, time, exact locations, a storyboard summary, duration, crew list and equipment list, so the creative locks first. The airside document set largely repeats per crew member and includes work and national IDs, and equipment is listed with brand names and serial numbers. For UAE residents a student visa means automatic rejection, laptops and tablets need a separate equipment pass, and an uncancelled pass from another airport stakeholder blocks a new application. Checkpoints and their uniformed personnel need prior written permission from the relevant authority, passenger interaction needs written permission and special clearance, and hazardous items down to masking tape are prohibited. Dubai Airports approves first, then the commission permit is sought through a local production agency. No fee is published on the operator's page, which carries a 2021 date.
Grolez Films: get the order right, then keep the unit small
The approach we would argue for at an airport is to make the landside or airside call before the treatment is written, go to Dubai Airports for preliminary approval before anyone approaches the commission, and gather crew documents at booking rather than in the final week. Then keep the unit as small as the work allows, because the paperwork scales with headcount and the calendar does not care about the budget.
Luis Grolez, the founder, pitches this personally, founder to founder.
See the work. Then get in touch about a specific terminal and a specific week.
Sources and methodology
The airport requirements here are taken from Dubai Airports' own published filming and photography page, and Dubai Airports is treated as the competent source for filming on its own property at Dubai International and Dubai World Central, and for nothing beyond that. That page carries a publication date of 18 January 2021, which is stated in the article because it bears on currency and probably explains why the page names the Dubai Film and TV Commission. No fee appears in this article because none appears on that page, and that absence is reported as a fact about the page rather than a conclusion that filming carries no charge. The document list in this article is a summary of the items that scale per crew member plus three that change plans, not the complete published set, and the article says so and directs applicants to the page. The operator's reference to the film commission is reported alongside the Dubai Government Media Office record that Decree No. 67 of 2024 transferred that commission from the Dubai Development Authority to the Dubai Media Council and that a newly formed Dubai Films and Games Commission was announced to succeed it; this article does not assert which office issues that permit today, and the commission's own processing time was not retrieved. The unmanned aircraft position is extracted from the primary text of Dubai Civil Aviation Regulation DCAR-UAS Issue 02, reference DCAA/DCAR/2024/00010, last revised 27 February 2025, including its one-to-one safety distance ratio and the Basic Category limits of uncontrolled airspace, visual line of sight, fixed pilot position and 122 metres. No fixed airport standoff distance appears in this article because none appears in the text examined. Questions left open: any fee, the commission's own lead time, whether escorts are required airside and who bears their cost, whether Dubai International and Dubai World Central differ in practice since the page addresses both together, and which authority grants written permission for checkpoint filming, which the page does not name. The page distinguishes media organisations, production agencies and commercial productions in its framing but sets out no differing rules for each, so this article does not tier the requirements by production type. Figures describing Grolez Films' own work are approximations from our own quoting, confirmed internally on 16 August 2026, and are not published rates. This article is informational and is not legal advice. Confirm your position with the relevant authority before relying on it. Prepared 17 August 2026.
- Dubai Airports, filming and photography requirements for DXB and DWC, published 18 January 2021, for the scope, the landside and airside processes, the Dubai Police requirement, notice periods, the request contents, the security pass document list, the permit sequence through local production agencies, and the prohibitions: media.dubaiairports.ae
- Dubai Government Media Office, on Law No. 29 of 2024, Decree No. 66 of 2024 and Decree No. 67 of 2024, 18 December 2024: mediaoffice.ae
- Dubai Civil Aviation Regulation DCAR-UAS Issue 02, DCAA/DCAR/2024/00010, revised 27 February 2025, primary text, for the one-to-one safety distance ratio, the safety distance and no-fly-over lists, the Basic Category limits and per-mission authorisation: betawebapi.dcaa.gov.ae