Philip Butterworth-Hayes, Publisher of Unmanned Airspace and Urban Air Mobility News, turns the tables and interviews Claudia Bacco, Editor-in-Chief, Global Airspace Radar about the recent xponential Europe conference and exhibition.

The discussion looks at what's different about the topics covered during this event, the event itself - hot or not, and a bit of a side step in cybersecurity. It isn't the same conversation about why it's taking so long for drones to scale in Europe!

Sergio Diaz Martinez, Business Development and Strategic Projects, Technology Park of Fuerteventura and Juanjo Sola, Chief Regulatory Office, Murzilli Consulting bring our Editor-in-Chief, Claudia Bacco up to speed on their answers to this question.

Do you already know about the Technology Park and their role in Canarias Geo Innovation Program 2030? You'll learn more about their work and the opportunities they are supporting to bring new concepts to life. One of the areas discussed is airspace risk assessment.

Airspace risk assessment is also an area Murzilli Consulting has supported in their work with U-space and SORA implementation work. If you are following this topic, then you understand the importance of solving this challenge not only for high altitude operations (HAO), but to scale the drone industry.

There's a lot of interesting work taking place in Spain, to help us get there. Listen and learn more....

The NTSB report about the accident in Washington DCA is over 400 pages long. Understanding its air traffic control implications is not easy and Vincent Lambercy has two guests on this special episode:

• Philip Mann, author of “The SCAR Framework: A Systematic Approach to AI Decision-Making in Critical Systems,” with nearly 30 years of experience in complex, safety-critical environments, including 17 years at the Federal Aviation Administration
  
  
• Mathew Lewallen, whose career has spanned multiple continents and conflict zones, with roles ranging from air traffic control crew supervisor to managing international altitude reservations across NATO, U.S., and partner nation airspaces.

Together, they take a deep dive in the report and then extract what makes sense for air traffic control experts.

James Evans, General Manager - Commercial, Airways International joins our Editor-in-chief, Claudia Bacco to look ahead at 2026 from the perspective of his new role in the organisation.

One of the main areas of discussion focussed on their shift in marketing priorities to ATC training and selection. Although this topic was important in 2025, it has now become the leading topic for them. Listen to learn more about why and the success they are seeing with the programme. There are some amazing statistics shared.

Drones and AAM are also included, with an overview of the first deployment of Airshare outside of New Zealand. From the perspective of expanding internationally, there are highlights of other successes outside of the region related to simulation and training.

And last, a sneak peak of what to expect from them at the upcoming Airspace World event in May.

John van Hoogstraten is the author of Reclaiming the Skies. In this episode, he discusses the book and the discussion it triggers online. John’s experience as an air traffic controller (ATCO), operations and safety manager, and consultant all over the globe gives him an interesting perspective. His current position as an independent consultant allows for a refreshing, free tone of speech.

The book starts with a razor-sharp analysis of how airlines imposed schedules on air traffic control (ATC) and how changes following the liberalisation phase pushed all actors into a race where each was focused on different achievements:

• Airlines for on-time performance
• Air Navigation Service Providers (ANSPs) for capacity
• Airports for runway throughput

The second part of the book focuses on solutions. According to “Reclaiming the skies”, what ATC needs is predictability, rather than last-minute actions to handle demand. The key to bringing predictability to ATC is to establish ownership of the trajectories – including the timing aspects. It introduces concepts like Airline Flight Optimisation System (AFOS) and the SmartSlot tool by Shift Aviation Solutions.

Oksana Bardygula, Vice President Oliver Wyman, joins Marita Lintener, Global Airspace Radar Editor to discuss leadership, career advancement and employee retention in the global aerospace sector. We dive into the findings of the report "Lift Off to Leadership" Edition 2, jointly released jointly in February 2026 with the International Aerospace Women’s Association (IAWA).

For decades, the aviation and aerospace sector has struggled to attract and retain employees from diverse backgrounds. Beneath this well-known challenge lies a deeper issue: the significant underrepresentation of women in leadership positions - highlighting the need for immediate and sustained action. This need has become more urgent given a worldwide industry talent shortage that is limiting both innovation and growth.

This discussion is a must-listen for aviation and aerospace professionals. In this episode we bring you evidence-based insight from a survey of 250 global aviation and aerospace leaders, on the root causes of talent attrition, reveal the pathways of successful leadership, and deliver actionable recommendations for individuals, organizations, and the industry. Join us for data-driven insights and real-world strategies you can use today.

You can download the full report under https://www.oliverwyman.com/our-expertise/insights/2026/feb/aviation-aerospace-women-leadership-barriers.html and on https://iawa.org/lift_off_to_leadership_second.php. Everybody is invited to join the discussions on Linkedin with the hashtag #LiftOffChallenge.

Malte Seifert, director of XPONENTIAL Europe met with our Editor-in-Chief, Claudia Bacco to look ahead at the upcoming event on the 24-26th March in Düsseldorf, Germany.

The event is only in its second year but has seen a great amount of growth from exhibitors and registered attendees compared to last year's event. There are also more live demonstrations planned for this year, a hackathon, startup pitching competition and additional conference tracks.

In addition to the XPONENTIAL Conference programme there are also Partner Conferences including the European Drone Forum, Cybersecurity Forum, Standards Forum, Bundeswehr German Drone Defence & Innovation Forum and the Autonomous Inland & Short Sea Shipping Conference.

Bringing together these topics under one roof allows for different participants to network and learn from other industry verticals facing similar challenges.

Peter Sachs, Head of Airspace Integration, Zipline spoke with Claudia Bacco, Editor-in-Chief, Global Airspace Radar about the 10 year path that has helped Zipline evolve to where they are at today.

We discuss the market needs in two very different markets. The support of medical requirements via drone delivery in Africa and the delivery of food and household supplies in the US.

In order for this to be successful, UTM is a key component. Building on UTM functionality, we look at Remote ID, electronic conspicuity, detect-and-avoid and more. These technologies all get us closer to autonomy, which is required for this concept to scale to it's full potential.