Two things that generally don’t work well together are drones and airports. All airports are considered no fly zones for any drone because of the great risk posed by a manned and unmanned aircraft colliding. Ever since the Gatwick Airport incident on December 19, 2018, when a drone led to the London airport shutting down for 3 days, costing airlines more than $64.5million in losses, airport management teams have done everything in their power to keep drones far away. However, in the right hands, under the right circumstances, drones can be valuable tools for airport management.

Schipol Airport in the southwest of Amsterdam, the 3rd busiest airport in Europe, is in the process of beginning a program using drones to inspect planes. It will be a joint project in cooperation with Royal Schiphol Group, the airport’s management team, Luchtverkeersleiding Nederland (LVNL), Netherlands’ air traffic control agency, and Dutch Drone Delta, an alliance of 13 Dutch aviation organizations. The 13 organizations, including the Royal Schiphol Group, announced the goals of the Dutch Drone Delta at the 2019 Amsterdam Drone Week conference. Officially launched in January 2020, Dutch Drone Delta’s primary goal, as explained on their website, is “Creating sustainable social, economic and environmental impact through drones and Urban Air Mobility.” They plan on doing this through 5 main tracks, the social embracement of UAVs, the development of autonomous long distance flights, the integration of manned and unmanned air traffic, drone delivery, and finally, personal air mobility.

The week long trial at Schipol Airport is set to be one of Dutch Drone Delta’s first missions. Trained drone pilots from LVNL will be operating the drones to inspect aircraft, taxiways, buildings, and even transport small parcels throughout the airport complex. The drone’s pilot will be in contact with an LVNL control tower at all times and avoid any active runways. According to Hassan Charaf, Head of Innovation at Royal Schiphol Group, the airport is currently seeing an 85% drop in air travel due to the coronavirus. Because of the quieter airspace, this is the ideal time to test the drones in the airport’s environment.

Before the drone trial even began, LVNL and Dutch Drone Delta had to get a special exemption order from the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management. This exemption lifts the ban on drones within Schipol’s airspace for the duration of the trial. The new regulation only applies to drones being operated by LVNL in collaboration with Dutch Drone Delta, all other drone operations are still strictly prohibited. Next, LVNL submitted every aspect of the drone trials to the Human Environment and Transport Inspectorate to ensure all safety guidelines would be met.

For drones to progress into the future, finding ways to integrate them into shared airspace is critical. All contributing members of Dutch Drone Delta recognize that the majority of these shared airspace interactions will occur in or around airports. That is why a trial like this is important, not just to see how drones can be used to help in daily airport activities, but also how passengers and airport employees react to the presence of drones in such a space. “Our plan is to integrate drones into our airspace in the future so that unmanned and manned aircraft can operate safely side by side,” said José Daenen, Director of Operations at LVNL. “That is a challenging task. We see the current, quieter airspace as an opportunity to practice this and test procedures. In this trial, we can gain initial experience regarding how to safely fly both manned aircraft and drones at Schiphol.”

Managing an airport is a stressful job. There is the safety of hundreds of people on the ground and in the air to take into consideration. With numerous daily flights, coordinating all of this is something that has taken years to perfect. But now, as drones are becoming more vital to daily activities, it is time to reassess how air traffic is managed. Drones have a place in airport management, and it seems that Amsterdam may be leading the way to ensure drones find a safe way to be used around airports and manned aircraft.

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