Estonian Air Navigation Services (EANS) and Frequentis will launch a new drone platform, enabling users to reduce manual tasks such as pre-flight authorisation, to further support Nordics and Baltics in implementation of U-space framework for drone services market, according to a company press release.
“One of our strategic goals is to develop a U-space framework and to support the state activities on advancing unmanned aviation sector in Estonia. EANS will take the role as a single Common Information Services (CIS) provider in Estonia, which offers a secure open protocol for data exchange between all stakeholders, enabling a competitive, innovative, and open market for U-space service provision,” says Teve Rahula, EANS Head of Business Development.
“This will enable the drone services to thrive as we are able to increase efficient and safe access to airspace. For this reason, EANS is collaborating with Frequentis to realise the implementation of U-space in Estonia to advance the emerging uncrewed traffic management (UTM) UTM ecosystem.”
The cloud-based UTM system is provided as a managed service in the Frequentis cloud environment, allowing validation of use cases and business cases. “The cloud architecture also enables a fully optimised deployment process, without the need for on-site activities. The UTM system complies with the requirements of Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2021/664 (draft) on a regulatory framework for the U-space.£
“The Frequentis CIS platform allows the integration of all airspace users on one single platform, providing a single source of truth and real-time situational awareness for air traffic controllers, drone operators and service providers. This integration allows both crewed flights and drones to safely share the same airspace, to see airspace restrictions and flight rules, file flight plans, and receive updates from air traffic controllers in real time. This is what is needed for the safe integration of drones into the aviation ecosystem,” says Guenter Graf, Frequentis Vice President New Business Development.
