Austro Control, together with Frequentis has developed a traffic management system for the safe integration of drones into the Austrian airspace. Drones have been experiencing a veritable boom for years. In order to make drone flying in Austria even safer and simpler, Austro Control, together with Frequentis, has developed a traffic management system for drones, which is now being launched.

With Austro Control Dronespace, drones are being integrated into the Austrian airspace. Drone flying becomes easier, because Austro Control Dronespace will be the contact point for all official and operational processes: from registering as a drone operator to personally managing individual drones in the app. Drone flying becomes safer because the "Quick Check" function for drone pilots always makes it immediately clear where it is permitted to fly and where it is not.

In future, Austro Control Dronespace will enable digital drone flight planning and flight clearances in real time. Drone pilots will have comprehensive situational awareness of other flights in their vicinity as well as all information relevant to aviation law regarding geo zones and airspace restrictions. With more transparency on planned drone flights and the automated clearance process (a process previously carried out via telephone by the tower), the new system also makes things less complicated for Austro Control's air traffic controllers.

The new system was tested intensively upfront with drone operators and the constructive feedback was incorporated into the development process. After a successful testing phase, the Austro Control Dronespace app is now ready for take-off. It is important that in the future drone pilots use the Austro Control Dronespace App for all their drone flights and file a flight plan when doing so.

With this, their drone flights will always be visible to other drone pilots as well as to air traffic control, enhancing safety. From 24 October, digital flight plan filing, and approval will be possible directly and digitally via dronespace.at. The new system will go live in a two-step process.

First, the operator registration and the Quick-Check function will be activated on 10 October 2023 in the desktop version. The app will then be available for download from 20 October 2023 at the latest.