Transport Malta’s Civil Aviation Directorate (CAD) has selected the IDRONECT UTM platform created by Belgium’s Aviatize to manage all drone flights on the archipelago.
According to an Aviatize IDRONECT press release:
“The system will be officially launched in the coming weeks. The Malta Drone Management System will be powered by the IDRONECT UTM platform and will allow drone users to fly their drones in an easy and safe way, by following the EASA regulations intuitively. At the same time, the Maltese aviation authorities will be able to control drone flights in a smart and modern way, without having an administrative overload.…The tool will give all stakeholders more visibility and allow users a much more efficient and safe way of operating their drone. The system will also allow for specialized jobs by a tracking system that can be deployed when deemed necessary. This opens up a new chapter in UAS operations in Malta and this will enable further innovation and applications.
Tom Verbruggen, IDRONECT’s CEO said: “We are very proud to have been selected to deploy our smart UTM system in Malta. Over the last five years we have been supporting many drone operators in flying safe, legal and efficient. Last year we also started by preparing the coming EASA regulations, also on the side of an aviation authority. We already had a Virtual Control Tower to manage geo-zones or smaller airspaces, but now we stepped up our game by providing a fully comprehensive system for a country UTM.”
Aviatize was founded in June 2015 by Tom Verbruggen and Chris De Rouck. IDRONECT is an end-to-end management platform for the administration, operation and compliance of drone flights, to help drone pilots, both professional and amateurs, to plan, perform and track drone flights in an easy and intuitive way. IDRONECT also connects pilots to the other actors in the drone ecosystem, such as authorities, air traffic management, drone manufacturers, drone schools, test centra, insurers, hardware providers etc.
Company timeline:
- August 2015: Prototype of Dronelog.be was created and tested.
- September 2015: Prototype was presented to the BCAA and accepted to be used as drone management and approval tool for the experimental, educational and scientific flights.
- In November 2015 the name and logo was changed to IDRONECT.com.
- In February 2016 IDRONECT was able to plan, request and approve the first drone mission at the DronePort incubator, in under five minutes, while all stakeholders were logged on the platform.
- In March 2016, IDRONECT was selected a start-up for the iMinds incubator programme iStart in order to develop the company and its projects.
- In May 2016, IDRONECT won the Drone Hero award for most International company at the EUKA Drone Convention. At the end of the same month, version 2.0 of the platform was released. In the next year, more than 40 updates were introduced, among which many new features and improvements.
- In January 2017, IDRONECT created a “white label” solution for DronePort – Limburg Regional Airport to manage the drone operations at the designated drone excellence center and incubator. Also in June 2017, IDRONECT won the Innovation award at the world’s Drone Congress in Shenzen China.
- In September 2017 the company moved to the new address at the Watt Factory in Gent, Belgium.
- In March 2018, live tracking and geofencing was added as one of the bigger features in the newest release.
For more information
https://www.idronect.com/static/Press-Release-Malta-69f4107a6fac68049925942518491ee5.pdf
https://www.idronect.com/resources/
