ENAIRE to integrate drone traffic with conventional aviation in smart cities
ENAIRE, Spain’s national air navigation manager, participated in the Smart City Expo World Congress 2025, an international event on urban innovation held at the Fira de Barcelona, joining a roundtable focused on technologies that enable the integration of drones in urban environments, with visitors from 135 countries.
Rodrigo Benedit, a technician in ENAIRE’s Drone Business Development Department, spoke in the session titled U-space and Enabling Technologies for Integrating Drones in Urban Environments, dedicated to analysing how cities can prepare to integrate drone operations safely and sustainably.
The panel included Enric Pastor, Associate Professor at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia; David Rovira, CEO of Rigitech (a Swiss manufacturer specialising in logistics drones); and David Fraissinet, Director General of the Automòbil Club d’Andorra. The session was moderated by Daniel Castillo, CEO of the Barcelona Drone Center, currently the only unmanned aerial systems (UAS) operator in Spain holding the European LUC (Light UAS Operator Certificate).
During the discussion, Rodrigo Benedit presented ENAIRE’s vision for the development of U-space services and its key role in the safe and efficient management of drone traffic in urban areas. He also highlighted regulatory and technological advances that are enabling greater integration of unmanned systems into conventional airspace, as well as the results of recent U-space demonstrations carried out in Spain under the U-ELCOME project, spanning eight autonomous communities with more than 600 drone flights.
