Global UTM Association Kicks Off 2022 with New Strategic Direction

Amid new developments in technology, standards and global regulations has led the Global Uncrewed Traffic Management Association (GUTMA) to take a step forward and start 2022 by infusing the Association with a new strategic direction and mission statement. The Association comes up with a clear vision for the next five years, alongside creating new working groups and high-level assets for the industry. The Association will also hold an online conference on a competitive U-space services market on 15^th March 2022.

 Bolstered by 60 global drone companies membership, the Global Uncrewed Traffic Management Association is open to all organisations involved in innovative drone services and smart mobility solutions and supports a global drone service ecosystem.

GUTMA expects the ecosystem of companies in the global drone services market to add real value to society and global economies. “Commerce and quality thrive when markets have choice, including in their drone operators and UTM providers. GUTMA supports a federated system of UTM services and fair drone services markets”, says Reinaldo Negron, GUTMA Co-President and Wing’s Head of UTM.

The Association already partners with leaders in the field - such as the GSMA with its “Aerial Connectivity Joint Activities” initiative, which builds up enhanced expertise for reliable and aviation-grade command and control functions based on telecom infrastructure and technology. GUTMA will continue to add value with the creation of a Standards and a Market Working Groups. 

The Standards Working Group will liaise between Standards Developing Organisations (SDOs) and promote harmonization while fostering more coherent market growth worldwide through the Market Working Group. It will also aim at providing responses and recommendations for such organisations. “GUTMA wants a harmonized global UTM services market, and global standards will best serve that market”, explains GUTMA General-Secretary Koen de Vos. “The Standards and Market Working Groups will help GUTMA and its member companies work towards this goal”. 

From the regulatory side, GUTMA has also set up a Policy Task Force to improve coordination vis-a-vis the European Union Drone Leaders’ Group, which is tasked with advising GUTMA representatives to high-level meetings with the European Commission. 

“The EU Policy Task Force will steer the official reply of the Association to the public consultation on the Drone Strategy 2.0,” stated Sebastian Babiarz, GUTMA Co-President and Dronehub Vice-President of Business Development. “This will help identify the actions to take to integrate drones into the aviation systems as well as establish an appropriate regulatory framework”. In this regard, the Association has developed global and continent-focused timelines highlighting regulatory developments worldwide.

Regulation and competitive market for drones will be the core of GUTMA’s next “Harmonized Skies 2022 - From standards to market” conference on 15^th March 2022. This first event of the year will dive into concrete and detailed discussions on the crucial links of the standards to market chain. While some of these discussions need to be conducted within the industry, the event will be the occasion to open a dialogue with regulators.