In January, you became the VP Spanish Recovery Funds Program Director. What are you most looking forward to doing in this role?
The European Commission has issued different packages for different countries for the recovery after the COVID-19 pandemic, and Spain will profit from one of the biggest packages. We’re trying to articulate part of that package that will go to the aerospace industry, boosting the implementation of use-based UTM in the national airspace. I’m making sure that we define the strategy with the government, not only on the industrial side but on the asset side.
Airbus is a longtime supporter of World ATM Congress, and this year Expodrónica joined World ATM Congress. How do you see Airbus being involved with World ATM Congress and Expodrónica in the future?
The combined show is very appealing to us because we have an ATM team and a UTM team. For us, Expodrónica represents the autonomous world, with a strong focus on drones, but it’s also important to push ATM towards integrating these new operations and new vehicles and secure the future digitalisation of ATM. It starts on the ground at World ATM Congress. Together we begin to understand different stakeholders’ business perspectives, operational needs, and then slowly, we can reflect that in the air.
Has anything you’ve experienced from World ATM Congress helped you in your career or changed your way of thinking about the industry?
I’ve attended almost every year of World ATM Congress. For my career and the work that I do with Airbus, it’s a huge opportunity for networking and getting to know different people from different parts of the world. The beauty of World ATM Congress is the ability to have discussions with people with different views and approaches and see how they converge. Sometimes it’s the air traffic controllers that are driving because they see real problems, and sometimes it’s the industry that is driving because they see all the technologies coming, and they want to implement them in the market. And then you see the ANSPs driving the evolution of the airspace, like here in Europe with the Single European Sky. People are coming together instead of working in silos. It opens the door to all these discussions. You realise that the ATM community, and now with the UTM community, is like a big family.
What are you personally looking forward to with the advancements of UTM?
I see that UTM is slowly but steady really becoming a big business opportunity. We’ve been working on UTM or drones for the last 10 years, and in a more agile and accelerated way over the last five years. Now you see drones integrated into a conference like World ATM Congress ATM, and it’s becoming a reality. I think that’s very powerful. Now we need to make sure that they find a proper space in the air traffic management community. And now we need to see operations taking off. We see today that the government, police, and emergency medical services are using drones. The volcanic eruption in the Canary Islands is showing us how drones can support by capturing images and data and anticipating dangers to communities. Drones are shifting from an option tool to a necessary tool.
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