Drones will deliver a parcel to your home and assist in farming and construction. These are some of the applications where developments will be brisk once European ground rules and safe airspace practices (U-space) are established for unmanned aircraft systems and future aircraft. Advancements in this field are driven for instance by the need to reduce emissions from transport and logistics and by the opportunities offered by digitalisation.

Uncertainty in the economy, the now-established trend for hybrid working, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine are still impacting road traffic volumes in Finland. During the last quarter of 2022, there were notably fewer passenger cars and heavy-duty vehicles on highways and main roads than a year earlier. In contrast, Lapland had its busiest Christmas season ever in terms of air traffic. All these insights were gleaned from Traffic Management Company Fintraffic’s October–December statistics.

Did you know that Finland has one of the most efficient airspaces in Europe? Fintraffic works every day to ensure that air traffic runs smoothly both now and in the future. What are the impacts of having an efficient airspace? And what kind of work does it take to keep an airspace running smoothly?