GENEVA, March 5 (Xinhua) -- A Swiss firm and a German-based company announced on Monday they would develop Europe's first national drone traffic management system in Switzerland.
Skyguide, the Swiss air navigation service provider, and AirMap, a German-based airspace management platform for drones, made the announcement in a joint release in Geneva.
"The system will be the first national deployment of U-space, Europe's vision for the digital infrastructure that will support safe and secure access to European skies for millions of drones," the companies said.
They said that much like the U.S. "Unmanned Traffic Management (UTM)" initiative, U-space is a collaborative effort to enable situational awareness, data exchange, and digital communication for the European drone ecosystem.
The pilot phase will start in June.
Skyguide and AirMap said they will also develop a roadmap for Swiss U-space that will set the stage for the deployment of a fully operational drone traffic management system in 2019.
The two companies said the AirMap platform provides national airspace rules for more than 20 countries and reaches more than 85 percent of the world's drones through its network.
Since 2013, drone flight requests at Skyguide have multiplied tenfold.
Switzerland is home to many drone companies and the world's first autonomous drone delivery network, located in Zurich, the press release said.
