Italy’s air navigation service provider (ANSP) ENAV has become the world’s first ANSP to produce a public version of its UTM business plan, with proposed charging scales for UTM services for both recreational and professional drone operators.
ENAV’s Cristiano Baldoni outlined the proposed charging mechanism (which has yet to be ratified by the regulator) in the final session of the GUTMA UTM session at the World ATM Congress in Madrid. Later this month ENAV will announce its UTM service provider partner in a private/public partnership company (in which ENAV will have a majority share), which will manage Italy’s UTM system.
| Area | Service description | Frequency | Recreational | Professional |
| Regulated services | UAV registration (to ENAC) | Registration fee (per UAV) una tantum | EUR5 | EUR5 |
| Regulated services | E identification and tracking | Annual fee (per operator) | EUR5 | EUR20 |
| Regulated services | UTM box (lease for e ident and tracking) | Annual fee | EUR40 (optional) | EUR40 |
| Regulated services | Support to mission – submission/approval | Per mission (only specific) | N/a | EUR30 |
| Regulated services | Monitoring and alerting | Fee per hour of flight (only specific) | N/a | EUR1 |
| Non regulated serviceds | Premium services | Annual fee | EUR5 | Included |
Key elements from the business plan:
- Investment and running costs sustainable in the mid-term with a ROI between third and fifth year of operations
- Total investment of EUR20 million in 10 years planned for full deployment of Italian U space to U4
- Planning EUR50-60 million of operational costs to 2028 for revenues of EUR70-75 million with an increasing positive cash flow from fifth year of operation; more than 60% of revenues generated by regulated services to support specific missions (eg BVLOS/autonomous)
- UTM Box lease in invariant in the cash flow. A built-in standard is welcome (as suggested by EASA opinion) but a temporary “e-identification add on system” solution is needed anyway.
No cash flow has been considered for non-regulated services. A lot of opportunities and significant business can be generated on top
The business case in built on the assumption that:
- The market growth estimates will be confirmed (see table below)
- The rule making process will confirm the current setting, as recently represented in the EASA opinion
Major risks are related to
- EU legislation
- Wasting of investment for lack of standard and IOP
- Market expansion slowing down
- BVLOS/ autonomous drone services market blocked or unexploited
Concerns are related to:
- Capacity of penetration
- Compliance to legislation from operators
Number of registered UAVS –universal registration for UAVS with a MTOW over 250 grams is expected to be mandatory by 2019
Market for forecast for drone numbers in Italy
| 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 | |
| Drones (000s) | 41 | 66 | 103 | 144 | 160 | 194 | 216 | 234 |
| Professional | 19 | 26 | 28 | 30 | 31 | 37 | 39 | 40 |
| Recreational | 81 | 74 | 72 | 70 | 69 | 63 | 61 | 60 |
