Switzerland Strives to Be Global Leader in Opening Skies for Drones
Swiss air-traffic control organization and local businesses team up to dramatically expand unmanned aircraft flights
ZURICH—Switzerland is working on pioneering ways to handle booming drone traffic aimed at allowing unmanned aircraft to quickly operate in much more of the nation’s airspace than approaches being pursued in other countries.
Backed by a fast-growing local drone industry and assisted by startup U.S. drone-services provider AirMap, Swiss authorities are taking concrete steps to move toward integrating manned and unmanned aircraft that can fly and safely coexist in the same cramped airspace.
The eventual goal envisions seamless integration to ensure controllers will give drone operators instructions in real-time to avoid hazards and prevent midair collisions, though no firm timeline has been established.
The lessons from the initiative are expected to promote similar efforts across Europe, on the other side of the Atlantic and parts of Asia, areas where regulators are on a slower track to expand drone uses. The Swiss government on Tuesday announced an interim move to facilitate “information exchange and interaction between airspace authorities and drone operators.” Controllers at some sites will now be able to track some drones on a dashboard next to their existing radar screens, and drone operators, in turn, will have access to automated flight-plan approvals and updated data about nearby helicopters and piloted planes. But at this point, controllers have no responsibility to intervene.
Skyguide, the air-traffic organization that is majority-controlled by the Swiss government, is bucking the tradition of strictly segregating drones in reserved airspace. It also has been prodding controllers to help transition to a unified traffic-control network and continues to spur development of advanced, cloud-based applications intended to encourage entrepreneurs and make Swiss skies a mecca for unmanned aerial vehicles.
In the close confines of landlocked Switzerland, traditional aviation “had to learn not just to live together, but to work together” with remotely piloted vehicles, said Klaus Meier, Skyguide’s chief technology officer, in a June interview.
But before that can become commonplace, Swiss authorities have to overcome technical challenges posed by mountain peaks, deep valleys and densely populated urban areas crisscrossed by helicopters.
Equally important, local law-enforcement agencies need to reassure controllers they won’t be held criminally liable for errors carrying out expanded responsibilities separating traditional aircraft from future generations of unmanned aerial vehicles. Over the years, some dozen controllers have been prosecuted or investigated by local law-enforcement officials across Switzerland for mistakes—even though the slip-ups didn’t result in accidents.
In many other countries, the spread of drone technology has prompted talk about long-term integration with piloted aircraft. But in Switzerland, drone backers are convinced that its imperative to implement changes sooner rather than later due to the competing challenges of the country’s topography and the popularity of Zurich Airport as an international hub. The current plans are intended to mark the path toward air taxis, large cargo drones and in decades to come, perhaps commercial aircraft directed from the ground.
AirMap, a closely held company based in Santa Monica, Calif., is working to help many countries from the U.S. to the Czech Republic expand drone flights. But Ben Marcus, the company’s co-founder and chairman, said “Switzerland is really on the leading edge,” pointing to earlier tests of mobile applications for flight authorizations by 200 drone operators around the Lugano and Geneva airports.
But not everyone agrees. “We often hear a lot of talk about one (country) is ahead, one is behind,” said Jay Merkle, the head of the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration’s drone integration office. The reality is the sharing of information and tips across national boundaries, said Mr. Merkle on the sidelines of an international air-safety conference in Cologne in June.
When it comes to urban air mobility in future years, “some of the early assumptions are going to go away,” Ricardo Domingo, head of the FAA’s flight standards office, said at the same conference.
Acceleration of Switzerland’s drone-friendly policies comes in the wake of European air-safety regulators releasing long-awaited rules in May contemplating new air-traffic solutions
According to Mr. Meier, in Switzerland “there is political support from the government” and encouragement from university spin offs for ambitious drone-friendly policies. Still, it’s expected to take until the end of the year to expand the flight-information network to Zurich’s complex airspace.