edit: In summary/TL;DR SkyPan was explicitly allowed to operate a 55lb drone commercially if they stayed at an altitude less than 400ft, the drone would fly home after a lost connection for safety, they were more than 500ft from people, and were 5 nautical miles from an airport UNLESS THEY HAD WRITTEN CONSENT from air traffic control authority.

The FAA has only issued 333a exeptions for commercial drone use to ~399 firms, one of which is SkyPan. Exemptions are case by case. They give these FAQs[1] on their site breaking down what that permit is.

Here are some excerpts from the SKYPAN exemption. These are issued as letters if you see the link[2] below and are evaluated on the case by case basis, following are relevant intersting excerpts specific to skypan[3]:

ESTABLISHED PRECEDENCE

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> FAA found that the enhanced safety achieved using an unmanned aircraft (UA) with the specifica tions described by the petition er and carrying no passengers or crew, rather than a manned aircraft of signi ficantly greater proporti ons, carrying crew in addition to flammable fuel, gi ves the FAA good cause to find th at the UAS operation enabled by this exemption is in the public interest.

TYPE OF VEHICLE

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This is the operating drone Specs:

> Operations authorized by this grant of ex emption are limited to the Align T Rex 700E F3C when weighing less than 55 pounds in cluding payload.

GENERAL RULES (speed, altitude, oversite)

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> may not be operated at a speed exceeding 87 knots (100 miles per hour).

> The UA must be operated at an altitude of no more than 400 feet above ground level

> All operations must utilize a visual observer (VO). The UA must be operated within the visual line of sight (VLOS) of the PI C and VO at all times. [I think PIC is person in control]

OPERATING AROUND AIRPORTS (SkyPan)

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The UA may not operate within 5 nautical mile s of an airport reference point (ARP) as denoted in the current FAA Airport/Facil ity Directory (AFD) or for airports not denoted with an ARP, the center of the ai rport symbol as denoted on the current FAA- published aeronautical chart, unless a lett er of agreement with that airport’s management is obtained or otherwise permitted by a COA issued to the exemption holder.

OPERATIONS AROUND CITIES (SkyPan)

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All Flight operations must be conducted at least 500 feet from all nonparticipating persons, vessels, vehicles, and structures unless: a. Barriers or structures are present that sufficiently pr otect nonparticipating persons from the UA and/or debris in the event of an accident. The operator must ensure that nonparticipating persons remain under such protection. If a situation arises where nonparticipating persons leave such protection and are within 500 feet of the UA, flight operations must cease immediately in a manner ensuring the safety of nonparticipating persons; and b. The owner/controller of any vessels, vehicles or struct ures has granted permission for operating closer to those objects and the PIC has made a safety assessment of the risk of operating closer to those objects and determined that it does not present an undue hazard.

SOURCES

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[0]https://www.faa.gov/uas/legislative_programs/section_333/333...

[1]https://www.faa.gov/uas/legislative_programs/section_333/333...

[2]https://www.faa.gov/uas/legislative_programs/section_333/333...

[3]In the letter the decision is based on other proposals, so some of these rules are possibly boilerplate. However, as an exemption, when I say "specific", I mean these are grants, so these are rules and allocations the entity (skypan here) must follow, not neccessarily applicable to other providers.