The PODIUM project comprises four complementary, large scale demonstrations, taking place in Denmark, France and the Netherlands where more than 185 drone flights will be conducted. Its partners’ quick wins integrated UTM solution will be demonstrated in a broad range of realistic operational conditions of drone operations (VLOS and BVLOS) in VLL airspace (controlled & uncontrolled airspace; urban, rural and in the vicinity of airports) interacting with manned traffic. Each of its four sites has its own specificities (e.g. routine day to day operations, emphasis on UTM/ATM communication, normal/abnormal conditions). The demonstrations will notably enable its safe and secure use by various categories of users (e.g. authorities, drone operations, drone pilots) and for many types of drone operations (e.g. electricity line inspection, emergency services). Together the four sites demonstrations ensure a comprehensive and extensive demonstration of the full potential and technology readiness level of the PODIUM UTM functionalities (from Before-flight to Post-flight with a special focus on in-flight dynamic geo-fencing). PODIUM is a U-Space compliant demonstration. Under EUROCONTROL leadership, PODIUM consortium comprises 10 members,17 linked third parties and 4 sub-contractors, including many in-kind contributions. By bringing together drone actors (UTM provider, drone operators, drone trackers manufacturers), ATM actors (ANSPs, ATM system integrator & others) and infrastructure providers (drone demonstrations centers, telecommunication network) supported by their local authorities in its Advisory Board, PODIUM project will naturally improve the links between the drone and the ATM communities therefore contributing to a safer integration of drone operation in the European airspace and maximising the outreach of the project at regulatory and standardisation levels.

The global objective of AURA is to lay the foundations for the integration of the new entrants in current and future air traffic environment, developing the required concept of operations and validating U-space services information exchanges with ATM systems. In order to achieve this objective, all relevant stakeholders (drone operators, U-space service providers, data services providers, ATM providers and authorities) will be included during the project development and throughout its lifetime. AURA project will identify the requirements for U-space information exchange with ATM through SWIM and will validate a set of selected U-space services, developing the service definition for the SWIM candidate services. Secondly, it will define a novel Collaborative ATM-U-space Concept of Operations (ConOps) for drones in a fully collaborative environment with ATM that go beyond the existing concepts developed for a U-space and will validate these new concepts. AURA project will contribute to enable the development of Very Low Level (VLL) markets, allowing the introduction of new actors in a safe, harmonized, sustainable and efficient way and compatible with current ATM environment. Also, the project will contribute to avoid the segregation of the airspace and increase the interoperability. AURA will provide inputs for the current regulatory and standardization initiatives regarding U-space with a high involvement of external stakeholders through an Advisory Board.

The Higher Airspace region is located between the airspace normally used by aircraft and the beginning of space. Higher airspace is no longer an exclusive transition zone, but an area where operations will be significantly expanded as a result of the emergence of a complete new aviation domain, business and technical opportunities and more, representing business values in the order billions per year. The anticipated operations in the Higher Airspace represent an emerging market like for the early days of aviation where providing rules, including structural procedures regarding traffic and operations management, is now considered as the key enabler of this international healthy business of $900b/y which worldwide connect people and civilisations. The ECHO (European Concept of Higher airspace Operations) Project will deliver a comprehensive demand analysis and a comprehensive, innovative and feasible Concept of Operations enabling near term and future Higher Airspace operations in a safe and orderly manner. The Higher Airspace including the operators forms a new, almost legacy free environment enabling an expeditions uptake of innovations or, extrapolated SESAR solutions. In this way the Higher Airspace could become an incubator environment for future ATM. The ECHO project deliverables will also be instrumental in developing a Global performance based framework and will be the basis for the European Regulatory Framework. For this the project includes all the key European actors and includes extensive coordination and consultation activities, such as three large Thematic Work Shops, to ensure wide European Stakeholder buy-in and alignment with evolving European policies. The project will pave the way for the economic development of various commercial concepts that will only be possible by using the Higher Airspace environment.

PJ19 W2 CI is a transversal activity of the SESAR 2020 Programme in continuation of the SESAR Wave 1 PJ19 CI Content Integration project. It aims to integrate the SESAR Solutions into the integrated European ATM System in order to achieve the objectives set by the ATM Master Plan (MP). This integrated European ATM System provides the overall European ATM concept, the high-level architecture options, the services, the supporting solutions, and the performance achievements associated with them. As such, PJ.19 W2 does not create any specific ATM concept or solution but produces a set of deliverables which consolidate the SESAR 2020 Programme outcomes and provides yearly integrated reference material – the SESAR 2020 Architecture release (EATMA version) . This is done in close collaboration and coordination with all SESAR 2020 Solutions and the SJU through continuous, rolling and iterative content integration. PJ19-W2 allows the assessment of the overall performance of the SESAR Solutions compared with the performance improvements expected for the European ATM. Whilst the decisions are made by SJU management and SESAR governance, PJ.19 W2 activities support and guide the processes (e.g. safety, security assessment, human performance, performance assessment, cost benefit analysis (CBA), architecture, requirements) to bring the SESAR Solutions together and assess their maturity (completeness, consistency and coherency) from a holistic perspective represented in the SESAR 2020 Concept of Operations. The PJ.19 W2 activities provide major inputs for the ATM MP production (ATM architecture information (e.g. data set), performance and CBA consolidation, business case production), which are further consolidated at the time of the ATM MP update campaign by the PJ.20 W2 ‘Master Planning’ project). PJ19-W2 provides support for the SJU/SESAR governance decision-making and programme execution monitoring and also contributes to the realisation of the ATM MP.

The S2020 project “PJ09 Advanced DCB” evolves the existing DCB process to a powerful distributed network management function which takes full advantage from the SESAR Layered Collaborative Planning, Trajectory Management principles and SWIM Technology to improve the effectiveness of ATM resource planning and the network performance of the ATM system in Europe. Solution 1 develops shared situation awareness with respect to demand, capacity and performance impacts. Traffic and demand forecast have improved reliability based on complexity assessment and the computation of confidence indexes. Network Operations will be continuously monitored through Network Performance KPA/KPI. Network impact assessment will analyse trade-offs and facilitate collaborative decision making processes. Solution 2 forms the core functionality of the INAP process (everything which can and should be decided locally. Solution PJ09-02 is the logical follow-up of the SESAR1 Local DCB toolset. It includes: INAP management, ASM integrated into DCB, reconciliation of DCB measures with local complexity management, ATC and Arrival Management. The solution addresses the integration of Local Network Management with extended ATC planning and arrival management activities in the short-term to execution in a seamless process. Solution 3 delivers subsidiary Network Management facilitated by a rolling NOP planning environment (including weather, demand pattern and capacity bottlenecks). Network Operations planning and Execution is managed by an agreed set of rules and procedures, guiding subsidiary DCB and UDPP measures under consideration of trade-offs and network performance targets. Collaborative 4D constraints management integrates AUs priorities and reconciles DCB measures with Airports, ACCs, AU and NM.