UAM: Urban Aerial Mobility (Red.)
Groups Urge Coordination for European Drone Integration
by Kerry Lynch
- January 25, 2021, 12:36 PM
Efforts by the European Union (EU) to develop a high-level framework
for the integration of drones into the airspace have drawn broad support from
the aviation community, but 14 organizations representing a cross-section of
the industry are appealing to EU member states to iron out a number of issues
related to airspace management, communications, infrastructure, liability, and
costs.
The “We are all ONE in the sky” group—including commercial airlines,
business aviation, general aviation, air traffic control, and pilot
organizations, among others—issued an open letter to EU member states on Monday, calling
the UAS traffic management, or U-Space, the latest draft of the
regulation “an important first step in establishing a performance-based
and risk-based regulatory framework."
But the letter adds that more needs to be done to address several areas
of concern. Specifically, the letter cautioned on the EU’s concept of a dynamic
reconfiguration of airspace between U-Space and air traffic management. “Our
operational experience shows that, even with different categories of manned
operations, segregating the airspace further does not necessarily mitigate the
safety risk and the associated disruption to operations,” the organizations
said.
They added the EU should define an appropriate tactical separation
management service to prevent collision between manned and unmanned aircraft
and stressed that a “fully supported technical concept” will be necessary to
ensure manned aviation does not face airspace restrictions every time a drone
flies out of the line of sight of its operator.
In addition, the organizations pushed for a common information service
that falls under the responsibility of a designated, certified Common
Information Service Provider and acts as the single point of access,
information exchange, and coordination.
Also, regulators must address concerns surrounding the infrastructure
needs to provide traffic information services at low altitude, particularly in
states that have a significant amount of uncontrolled airspace, they said. The
organizations pointed to new surveillance and communication
infrastructure technology that could enhance coverage but said a lack
of European performance requirements both on the air traffic and airborne
equipment side hamper such technologies.The groups further expressed
concern over ambiguities surrounding responsibilities and liabilities among the
air traffic management and service providers and called for an impact and cost
assessment. “The cost of integration shall not be borne by the already
existing/operating airspace users, gliders, helicopter, and airplane pilots or
their passengers but, in fact, should be covered by the drone operators to
whom the services are offered,” they said.
In addition, the groups are encouraging further cooperation between the
manned and unmanned sectors.
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