Insights from Airspace World 2024: Year 0 for AAM Airspace Integration

There is a gap that exists in the aviation industry, and unless we find a way to bridge it, the forecasted $50B Advanced Air Mobility market will never be realized.

This past week, members of the NUAIR team were in Geneva, Switzerland discussing international air traffic management at CANSO’s Airspace World 2024. Despite being several thousand miles away from home, the challenges and difficulties that we discovered here were quite similar to what is felt in the United States. How does current aviation deal with this next generation of aircraft, pilots, and operations? What needs to happen to realize the full potential of this nascent market? Who needs to be engaged to ensure change on a global scale? How do you reconcile uncrewed aerial systems (UAS) and next generation aircraft sharing airspace with commercial and general aviation?

At a show that historically focuses on traditional ATM, new players are entering the exhibit hall and session panels are discussing UTM, eVTOLs, and new digital and physical infrastructure needs. Three things dominated the conversation:

1. For any progress in AAM integration to be sustainable, there needs to be international cross-border collaboration.

2. A set of harmonized standards needs to be agreed upon and adhered to – rather than a singular governing body.

3. Information sharing is different to data sharing. Traditional ATM understands how this works, but the digitization of uncrewed data has yet to be fully understood.

   
   

Now, the question also comes in: how do uncrewed aerial systems (UAS or drones) enter into the AAM field – or do they? In the United States drones are being flown all over, but as we commercialize and scale operations, where do they fit in?

NUAIR has over a decade of experience working with UAS as well as understanding and collaborating with regulatory bodies at home and abroad. In recent years, NUAIR has anticipated the closing distance between drones and traditional aviation. Linking the two together, NUAIR curated a stack of technology and innovation partners – the NUAIR Alliance – to look at AAM and ways to address this gap (rather than put all the details here, you can learn more about the Alliance through our ongoing blog series).

The team witnessed this year’s Airspace World as Year 0 for AAM airspace integration and at the conference, the players were ready – Joby, Lilium, EVE, NATS, NUAIR, NASA, and more were discussed regularly in panels; international regulators were cluing in – ICAO, EASA, and others were listening and commenting on how to address needs; and the world confirmed it wants to see what is coming next. However, one thing is certain… as the clock continues to tick down on stakeholder returns and public patience, action needs to be taken soon to bridge UTM with traditional aviation into a truly integrated world of Advanced Air Mobility.

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