Rockets, drones and flying taxis: airlines brace for crowded skies
The world’s skies are becoming crowded, posing a risk to airlines as rockets, drones, and “flying taxis” in the near future begin to use airspace. The huge number of new rockets — pioneered by Elon Musk’s SpaceX — is set to exacerbate the problem as the growing commercial space industry will share airspace used by tens of thousands of passenger planes. Meanwhile, drones and the expected emergence of electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft (eVTOLs), so-called flying taxis, are set to complicate the management of the lower levels of airspace through which planes take off and land. The number of passenger planes is forecast to grow by a third to more than 36,000 aircraft by 2034, according to consultancy Oliver Wyman. By that point, they will be sharing the skies with more than 10,000 eVTOLs, according to Bain, and thousands of rocket launches. Aviation experts believe the way airspace is managed will need to change. “There are more users and more vehicles that want to use airspace . . . the way that we provide our services will probably need to change significantly,” said Eduardo Garcia, senior manager for future skies at Canso, the body that represents the air traffic management industry. “It is a key topic, and it will not be easy. Ours is a safety critical industry,” he said. The issues facing airlines were illustrated last month when Qantas delayed several flights between Australia and South Africa after the US government warned about the risk of SpaceX rocket parts re-entering the atmosphere in the southern Indian Ocean. But Chris Quilty, co-CE of space business consultancy Quilty Space, said the Qantas delays could be the “tip of the iceberg” in a rapidly developing space industry. It is not just rocket companies that are developing vehicles designed to return to earth. A host of start-ups are targeting manufacturing products such as pharmaceuticals in space, using the benefits of no gravity, all of which will need to be brought back down to earth. “It is the wild west. The rate at which this is happening is starting to impact the aviation community,” he added.<br/>
https://portal.staralliance.com/cms/news/hot-topics/2025-02-17/general/rockets-drones-and-flying-taxis-airlines-brace-for-crowded-skies
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Rockets, drones and flying taxis: airlines brace for crowded skies
The world’s skies are becoming crowded, posing a risk to airlines as rockets, drones, and “flying taxis” in the near future begin to use airspace. The huge number of new rockets — pioneered by Elon Musk’s SpaceX — is set to exacerbate the problem as the growing commercial space industry will share airspace used by tens of thousands of passenger planes. Meanwhile, drones and the expected emergence of electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft (eVTOLs), so-called flying taxis, are set to complicate the management of the lower levels of airspace through which planes take off and land. The number of passenger planes is forecast to grow by a third to more than 36,000 aircraft by 2034, according to consultancy Oliver Wyman. By that point, they will be sharing the skies with more than 10,000 eVTOLs, according to Bain, and thousands of rocket launches. Aviation experts believe the way airspace is managed will need to change. “There are more users and more vehicles that want to use airspace . . . the way that we provide our services will probably need to change significantly,” said Eduardo Garcia, senior manager for future skies at Canso, the body that represents the air traffic management industry. “It is a key topic, and it will not be easy. Ours is a safety critical industry,” he said. The issues facing airlines were illustrated last month when Qantas delayed several flights between Australia and South Africa after the US government warned about the risk of SpaceX rocket parts re-entering the atmosphere in the southern Indian Ocean. But Chris Quilty, co-CE of space business consultancy Quilty Space, said the Qantas delays could be the “tip of the iceberg” in a rapidly developing space industry. It is not just rocket companies that are developing vehicles designed to return to earth. A host of start-ups are targeting manufacturing products such as pharmaceuticals in space, using the benefits of no gravity, all of which will need to be brought back down to earth. “It is the wild west. The rate at which this is happening is starting to impact the aviation community,” he added.<br/>
