Terra Drone’s Group Company Unifly Conducts Demonstration for Integrated Management for Vertiports for Advanced Air Mobility (AAM)

Terra Drone Corporation, a leading drone and Urban Air Mobility (UAM) technology company headquartered in Japan, is pleased to announce that its group company and a global leader in UAS Traffic Management (UTM) solutions, Unifly has successfully led a technical validation and demonstration of integrated vertiport management under the European joint project “EUREKA (hereinafter referred to as “the project”),” which aims to realize the societal implementation of next-generation air mobility.

About the EUREKA Project (Note 1)

The project is an international joint initiative aimed at establishing an air traffic management and information-sharing framework compliant with the U-space (Note 2) regulation, and at developing operational standards for vertiports in anticipation of the societal implementation of next-generation air mobility.

The project is led by the SESAR Joint Undertaking(Note 3), a European collaborative research organization, and involves participation from 35 companies and institutions, including AENA (Spain’s airport operator), ENAIRE (Spain’s air navigation service provider), and EUROCONTROL (the European air traffic management organization).

At the core of the project is the development and validation of a Vertiport Collaborative Traffic Management system  (VCTM)  (Note 4). The VCTM system is designed to enable real-time sharing and coordination of operational information, such as scheduled takeoffs and landings or emergency responses, among multiple stakeholders involved in eVTOL operations.

Unifly is participating in the EUREKA project as a U-space service provider (Note 5), applying its extensive expertise in UTM systems to the development and validation of the VCTM system.

Overview of the Demonstration

• Date: July 21–22, 2025
• Location: INDRA facility, Madrid, Spain
• Objective: To evaluate the validity and scalability of the VCTM system under simulated real-time operational conditions.

<Key Evaluation Items>

1. Seamless Interoperability
   Assess whether real-time and accurate information sharing and coordination can be achieved via the VCTM system among relevant stakeholders, including vertiport operators, U-space service providers, and common information service providers.
2. Safety and Efficiency
   Verify whether the VCTM system can maintain safe and appropriate traffic management both during normal operations and in contingency scenarios such as communication failures, emergency responses, or traffic congestion.
3. Operator Support
   Evaluate whether the VCTM system effectively supports operators in maintaining situational awareness and making informed decisions.

<Unifly’s Role>
As a U-space service provider, Unifly played a role in real-time information integration and coordination between vertiport operators and common information service providers. The company evaluated the effectiveness of the VCTM system from a technical perspective.

<Key Outcomes>

• Successfully demonstrated advanced interoperability among vertiport operators, U-space service providers, and common information service providers.
• Confirmed the system’s stability and ability to maintain operations during communication failures, emergency situations, and under high-traffic situations.
• Verified the effectiveness of the VCTM system in supporting informed and timely decision-making by operators.

Comment from the CEO

Andres Van Swalm, CEO of Unifly stated: As Innovative Aerial Mobility becomes a reality, ensuring the safe and efficient integration of drones and air taxis into shared airspace is critical. This simulation highlights how collaboration and interoperability between systems are key to building a scalable, trusted UTM infrastructure.

Future Outlook

This demonstration marked the culmination of the real-time simulation phase within the EUREKA project. The next step will be live demonstrations conducted in real-world operational environments. Unifly will continue to play a role as a core technology provider in the air mobility infrastructure field, contributing to the societal implementation of next-generation air mobility.