Special Flight Office (SFO) tool

The SFO tool was able to support the approval of 3’000 UAS flights in a 6-week period thanks to an automated process. This would have been physically impossible, had this been done by human ATC.

The benefit for the UAS operators translates in a wider access to the airspace for their crop spraying activities.

On the safety side, the rollout of this process ensures the coordination with other manned airspace users, ie. helicopters also spraying vineyards in the vicinity.

For the Air Traffic Controllers (ATCOs), the workload to manage UAS flight approvals has significantly decreased compared to the same period last year.