Held over 3 days, the World ATM Congress – as its title suggests was previously the preserve of manned aviation and the associated aspects related to the visible and digital infrastructure to support the airports and airlines.

However with the rise of drones and AAM, the 2022 version (the first real one for over 2 years) is a very different beast.  About 1/3 of the floor space and most of the stands recognise the industry and are actively looking to offer a service, or partner with some of the new participants such as UTM operators.

But most of you reading this might be saying, how does that benefit me?  With a number of UK representatives leading talks and stands – we are having a strong voice when it comes to identifying the problems and offering solutions to integration of airspace, which otherwise will continue to hamstring operators’ ability to fly.

What I noticed is that there are a number of different parts of the problem that seem to be being solved in isolation, and that progress in collaboration is happening across a number of the standards bodies which offer a means for commonality e.g. EuroCAE, ASTM.  What is less clear is how they are implemented, one commentator noted that despite EASA having an agreed set of regulations, each country is choosing to interpret them differently or the regulators in a country themselves are unable to deploy their own resources to manage solutions.

Also the excitement that first existed from others about how drones were going to shake up a slow,safety driven industry have quietened down as the industry has matured.  UTMs getting certified seems to be a problem for another time, so they are working out how to act as a data ingestor into existing ANSPs who themselves recognise they need to offer services but aren’t quite sure how to do that.

What this conference doesn’t cover is the frustrations members might have about getting safety cases approved, renewals etc.  But in summary the wider ATM industry is waking up to the potential of drones and AAM and therefore the offerings and solutions being presented will only multiply for the industry – which we hope is a good thing in the long run.

Check out the World ATM Twitter feed for more.

by Aleks Kowalski, ARPAS-UK Committee Member

24 June 2022