PANSA has operationally launched PansaUTM – the first drone flight coordination system in Europe

The Polish Air Navigation Services Agency  launched the first operational drone flight coordination system in Europe used by, among others, air traffic controllers. The PansaUTM system has successfully passed the accreditation process run by PANSA and supervised by the Civil Aviation Authority of Poland.

New system was launched in the controlled areas of airports in Poznań, Bydgoszcz and Modlin. By the end of March, additional locations are planned (next airport control towers and FIS sectors), and completion of the entire implementation process is planned in the second quarter of 2020.

The growing number of operations performed by unmanned aerial vehicles means that drones must be treated as an equal airspace user. In Poland, we are the first in Europe to launch an operational system enabling the safe integration of unmanned aviation with crewed ones. This is a huge success that we can all be proud of, ‘said Minister Marcin Horała, secretary of state at the Ministry of Infrastructure and government plenipotentiary for the Central Communication Port for the Republic of Poland.

During last year’s World ATM Congress in Madrid, we presented the innovative PansaUTM concept worldwide. This year at the World ATM Congress, we will be presenting a solution that is already operational. This is a huge success of PANSA and Poland, which confirms our country’s implementation of the assumptions of the U-Space concept – said Janusz Janiszewski, president of the Polish Air Navigation Services Agency.

The PansaUTM system allows, among others for fast, digital, non-verbal communication between air traffic controllers and drone operators. Thanks to PansaUTM, drone operators can quickly check flight opportunities in a given area, digitally submit a flight plan and obtain permission to fly if it does not threaten the safety of the aircraft. For air traffic controllers, PansaUTM is information about unmanned aerial vehicle flights planned in the vicinity of airports and the possibility of issuing permits for flights, similar to crewed aviation. And all this in a dynamic and electronic way.

Launching PansaUTM is an important step towards ensuring the safety of advanced drone operations and a pillar for the development of the drone applications market, which is the subject of the program Żwirko and Wigura of the Responsible Development Strategy – said Małgorzata Darowska, Plenipotentiary of the Minister of Infrastructure for Unmanned Aircraft.

PansaUTM’s range of support for UAV operators in preparing for flight covers the whole of Poland. In turn, the system modules supporting the functions of issuing digital conditions by the Agency and consents to flights are being gradually implemented around communication airports – said Filip Sosin, U-Space Program Manager.

PansaUTM is a concept of digital coordination of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) flights and management of applications and permits for flights in the Polish airspace, which includes PANSA’s proprietary operational solutions and the system part provided by the technology partner HAWK-E, integrated with Droneradar – which is the most popular application among drone operators in Poland.