Benidorm hosts the first simultaneous operation in Europe of an air taxi with drones in an urban environment and U-Space 

Benidorm, Spain, has hosted Europe’s first simultaneous flight of an air taxi and drones in a real urban environment, with three U-space service providers. The Poniente and Levante beaches provided the setting for an aerial demonstration, coordinated by the Universitat Politècnica de València, at which an EH216-S air taxi – an unmanned aerial vehicle for passenger transport – from the company EHang, with a capacity for two people, was operated simultaneously alongside 12 drones simulating various operations, from goods transport and delivery to surveillance and rescue tasks, as well as with different manned aircraft. All of them were monitored and supervised by digital and automated platforms of the European unmanned airspace management system (U-space), which ensured flight safety and operational efficiency.

This great aerial demonstration, the first of its kind in Europe, is part of the European project U-ELCOME (CEF-T-2021-SIMOBGEN-SESAR-DSDU WORKS), involving 51 partners from three countries – Spain, France, and Italy – all coordinated by EUROCONTROL. Its aim is to integrate and validate the first U-space services (drone air traffic management) in Europe, and to achieve this, several large-scale demonstrations are being carried out under real flight conditions in Spain, France and Italy.