The whitepaper, co-authored by several AME members under the leadership of EUROCONTROL in the frame of the SESAR-funded EUREKA project, is titled “Innovative Air Mobility Challenges the Air Traffic Management Paradigm: A European Approach to Safe and Efficient Operation of Vertical Take-Off and Landing Capable Aircraft and Vertiports.”
Existing airspace structures, flight and operating procedures historically designed for conventional aircraft fall short of addressing the operational characteristic of vertical take-off and landing capable aircraft (VCA) and vertiports particularly with respect to manoeuvrability, automation, digitalisation, and performance. Current European regulations for VCA and vertiports impose stricter flight planning requirements, such as the selection of diversion location. However, neither existing air traffic management (ATM) nor the U-space framework provide the necessary information required by VCA operators. To address this gap, this paper examines four operational challenges:
- where to locate a vertiport,
- how to operate a vertiport,
- how to manage VCA at a vertiport,
- and how to operate and manage VCA within a network of vertiports.
The whitepaper was developed in the frame of the EUREKA project, which ended in May 2026.