After attending this year’s Aerial Cities, 11-12 November in Dublin, I believe the answer is yes. Two years ago I attended this same event and heard a lot of discussion related to drones not being aviation and not needing unmanned traffic management (UTM) solutions to perform their tasks in cities or for industry. There’s been a major shift in this discussion in the last two years. It now seems that everyone has or feels they need UTM. Why the change, the desire to scale BVLOS flights.
The CEO of the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA), Declan Fitzpatrick, kicked off the event by celebrating Ireland’s aviation history of almost 100 years and the launch of their drone registry 10 years ago. As you can imagine the IAA and Dublin City Council shared their views in many panels during the two-day event as it took place in their home town.
Operationalising U-space
With all of the enthusiasm in the room, why is it taking so long to operationalise U-space in many regions? There was a panel decided to this topic that posed some theories.
Austro Control represented the air navigation service provider (ANSP) view in this discussion and the challenges they presented were many – although the technology is ready – the integration with air traffic management (ATM) is slow, there is no competent authority for U-space Service Provider (USSP) certification in Austria, the use cases aren’t in place to drive societal acceptance – medical services and mountain rescues would be examples. They hope that action will begin in 2026 with the goal being integration over separation. Building on the existing infrastructure is the way to establish trust and scalability.
FOCA Switzerland raised a concern about coordination. They shared that U-space users need to pay Skyguide (the Swiss ANSP) to use controlled airpsace and felt that Skyguide should take over the management of this.
Collins Aerospace also participated in this panel and re-iterated the earlier comment that the technology is ready. It’s the operations that aren’t, specifically the integration with ATM, air traffic control workflows, rules for data sharing and the use of automation. Automation specifically for transparency, traceability, and social trust. With a specific comment as to how automation would align with the current air traffic controller way of working.
I am a bit surprised that Air Nav Ireland, although an attendee, wasn’t a participant in any panels as the event took place in Ireland. The IAA ultimately controls the drone topic in this region, but I would have liked to hear more about the integration (or not) with the ANSP.
Investors are backtracking
This is one of the statements made in the investor perspectives panel. Let’s qualify this statement as it wasn’t overarching, but related to Europe. Investors look for certainty and today the certainty that the drone industry can scale isn’t there. Across the Atlantic, there is investment. The US believes in autonomous delivery and the investment follows.
One concern is how will drone businesses wait out the slow regulatory movement in Europe? Only well-funded companies can wait this out, others will not last. And then there is the risk that the European companies who are funded shift their focus out of Europe and in the future – Manna will focus outside of Europe in 2026, well-funded US companies take the lead even in Europe.
So what’s a company looking for investment to do? Investors want a story that is a complete solution, not just part of the solution. Some investors encourage startups to take full control of the entire stack to deliver their solution. This can be seen with X-as-a-service as opposed to a piece of hardware. With an XaaS you have a larger share of revenue and the customer focus. A platform is harder in the short term but can be a big win longer term if done correctly.
Many lessons learned in investing come from having the wrong timing – too early/too late for the market and investing in a person and not a company.
The importance of connectivity
Two panels addressed the importance of connectivity, the data-driven safety panel and the seamless connectivity for autonomous BVLOS panel.
Dimetor discussed the role of telecoms as providing the necessary digital infrastructure to safely control and scale BVLOS. But also three things to think about before jumping into this assumption. It varies by region whether telecoms allow the use of their SIM cards and spectrum for drones, this must be checked in advance. Telecoms are one of the largest holders of data, but we’re lacking regulation as to how this data can be shared and/or monetised. Lastly, telecoms are one of the largest drone operators, think of their drones as sensors that gather data. How can this become complimentary and not competitive?
Research showed that 60% of the drones entering the Ukraine have been found by using the cellular infrastructure. Using the location of mobile phones to provide dynamic ground risk assessments is a way to access 24×7 global location data. But how can you access and share this? There are some interesting opportunities and food for thought here.
UTM as a table stake
Coming back to my introductory statement above, UTM will need to be ubiquitous to have ubiquitous BVLOS and ultimately autonomous flights. Organisations beyond traditional UTM providers are building solutions and this is a bit of double-edged sword. It’s a great step forward for the market, but how does this work if a drone needs to cross two different UTM areas? And who is certifying the UTMs. Yes, certifying them to ensure they work as designed to provide comprehensive situational awareness. There’s still a lot to think about, but it’s great to see momentum around this topic. Now if we can only get consistent regulatory momentum!
