Astra UTM delivered a unique showcase of simultaneous drone flights being tracked in real-time at the launch of the HERA Drone Hub in the City of Zaragoza. The inauguration aims to establish Zaragoza as the first and the only city in Europe to authorize a space for testing, experimentation and training of drones in an urban environment with a strategic focus on the future of mobility and advanced aerial mobility.

Astra UTM showcases the future of drone traffic management at Zaragoza Drone Hub Inauguration

Astra UTM delivered a unique showcase of simultaneous drone flights being tracked in real-time at the launch of the HERA Drone Hub in the City of Zaragoza. The inauguration aims to establish Zaragoza as the first and the only city in Europe to authorize a space for testing, experimentation and training of drones in an urban environment with a strategic focus on the future of mobility and advanced aerial mobility.

“Zaragoza wants to be the European reference city for advanced mobility. The mobility of the future will be connected and autonomous, terrestrial and air, and that is why we have been working from the Public Services Area of the City Council so that Zaragoza is a reference in this sector. We are strongly committed to the future and the future is already here, in the form of urban air mobility. And we are doing it with facts,” said the mayor of Zaragoza, Jorge Azcón, at the inauguration today of Hera Drone Hub.

The extraordinary location of Hera Drone Hub, next to the AVE station and in the middle of the Ebro corridor, is a perfect location to experience the transformation of urban mobility and train new air, land and aquatic uses. The geographical situation of Zaragoza thus allows to develop a holistic project with industries such as energy, automotive and logistics and in which the Zaragoza City Council will also carry out the flight tests of the European project FLYING FORWARD, selected in the call for the H2020 program “Towards sustainable urban air mobility”.

On its launch, Hera Drone Hub hosted a flight demonstration test of four drone operations monitored and managed with the Astra UTM system in urban segregated space – simulating an urban multi use-case scenario in the future of UTM and AAM. The demonstration was coordinated by Everis through the Astra UTM (Unmanned Traffic Management) platform, integrated with the AIRUS services of Everis and Instituto Tecnológico de Galicia.

According to Ayhan Kamil, Chief Commercial Officer at Astra UTM, “We believe that city councils and municipalities are starting to recognize the potential economical advantages that UTM and UAM readiness can bring about – and as a result we are seeing an uptake in the interest and commitment to UTM from the relevant stakeholders – eventually UTM benefits both the operators and the airspace managers. We are excited about the integration with Everis AIRUS services, which demonstrates the capability of our platform to cater to varied regulatory framework architectures.”