UTM infrastructure for drone airspace management in Uruguay

The growth of unmanned aviation poses a different challenge from adding one more aircraft to the airspace. As the number of operators, aircraft and applications grows, an authority needs to know who is flying, where, when, under which authorisation, and what other activities can coexist in that space.

Since 2021, CIELUM has worked with Uruguay's National Directorate of Civil Aviation and Aeronautical Infrastructure (DINACIA) to develop and implement digital capabilities for managing low-altitude airspace.

The project began as a pilot between 2021 and 2023. In 2024 it moved into a commercial stage, gradually becoming an operational tool for administering and coordinating unmanned aircraft operations.

This experience made it possible to evolve from a system focused mainly on registration and flight requests into a UTM platform able to bring together traceability, geo-awareness, institutional coordination, authorisations, aeronautical information and support for advanced operations.

The challenge: managing increasingly complex airspace

A drone ecosystem can grow quickly.

Different operators need to carry out recreational, commercial, agricultural, audiovisual, inspection, security or logistics flights. Some operations take place far from other aeronautical activity, while others need to be coordinated with airports, restricted areas, public bodies or manned airspace users.

Managing this scenario only through documents, emails or separate communications limits the ability to build a shared picture of the activity.

For the aviation authority, the challenge is to turn that information into a digital, orderly and traceable process that can manage the sector's growth without losing visibility of operations.

For operators, the challenge is different but complementary: having one place to learn the applicable conditions, register their activity and manage their operation requests.

The project developed with DINACIA aims to connect both needs in a single infrastructure.

One platform for the authority and operators

CIELUM Easy brings together different drone operation processes in a single environment.

The platform covers registration of operators and aircraft, along with the related documentation and expiry dates. From there, the authority can manage users, validate information and keep an up-to-date record of the ecosystem.

Operators can request flights by specifying the area, period and relevant mission details. Depending on the configured rules, a request can follow an automatic authorisation process or require review by the relevant bodies.

This allows a single platform to handle everything from simple operations to flights that need additional coordination.

Information stays linked to the history of the operator and the operation, creating traceability that supports both day-to-day management and later analysis.

Aeronautical information and geo-awareness

A safe operation starts before take-off.

That is why one of the system's core components is geo-awareness: providing relevant spatial information so operators and authorities understand the conditions in an area before planning or authorising a flight.

The platform can display prohibited, restricted or dangerous areas, as well as temporary restrictions and other relevant aeronautical information.

DINACIA can also create dynamic restriction zones, for example for an event, an emergency or a specific public safety need, and communicate that condition to system users.

This turns the map from a purely informative element into an active airspace management tool.

Coordination between institutions

Not every authorisation depends on a single authority.

An operation may require the involvement of different bodies, aeronautical units or public institutions. CIELUM brings those stakeholders into the digital workflow, routing requests to whoever is responsible and recording responses, statuses and comments.

In Uruguay, this capability has increased the traceability of requests that require coordination with the Air Operations Command and has advanced the integration of requests located in airport areas with Air Traffic Control.

The result is a process where responsibilities can be clearly identified and the history of a request can be consulted later.

This reduces reliance on scattered communications and builds an operational memory of the activity.

Impact: from managing records to managing operations

The value of a UTM infrastructure becomes visible when the ecosystem starts to use it.

During 2025, the system recorded approximately:

• 1,154 operations
• 276 registered drones
• 524 manual requests, of which 304 were approved
• hundreds of users on the platform

The growth in activity is particularly significant compared with the start of the commercial stage: project records show 103 operations recorded in 2024, compared with more than 1,100 in 2025.

Beyond volume, this change reflects a qualitative shift: the platform began to be used as an operational channel for managing air activity, and not only as an administrative repository of operators and aircraft.

Enabling more advanced operations

A UTM infrastructure becomes especially important as more complex missions appear.

The health Drone Delivery project in Tacuarembó is an example. Recurring long-range operations require shared information, known routes, coordination with other airspace users and greater situational awareness.

In that context, the platform can incorporate network remote identification and real-time position reporting, showing where an aircraft is during its operation.

In Tacuarembó, this information could be part of the coordination with other airspace users, including operators linked to agricultural aviation.

The link between the two projects shows a core feature of UTM: it is not an end in itself; it is infrastructure that allows new ways of using the airspace to scale.

A model with regional relevance

Latin America is in a phase of growing drone operations, but the digitalisation of their management is advancing unevenly.

Uruguay's experience is relevant because it combines in a single system several capabilities that usually appear separately: registration, authorisation, aeronautical information, geo-awareness, institutional coordination and support for advanced operations.

The project report identifies Uruguay, together with Brazil, among the regional references in adopting digital tools to manage drone operations.

For a country of Uruguay's size, having a national infrastructure also makes it possible to test and develop new coordination models in real conditions. The lessons learned may be especially relevant for other Latin American authorities beginning to face the growth of BVLOS operations, drone logistics, infrastructure inspections or public-interest applications.

The regional value does not lie in the software alone. It lies in the accumulated knowledge of how to turn regulatory and aeronautical processes into digital services that authorities and operators can use.

Outlook: integrating the airspace further

The future growth of unmanned aviation will require ever closer coordination between UTM environments and traditional air traffic management systems.

One of the main prospects for the platform is to deepen UTM–ATM interoperability, so that information about unmanned flights can be progressively integrated with the processes and stakeholders of conventional aviation when needed.

This evolution also opens room to expand capabilities such as:

• remote identification and real-time tracking of operations;
• increasingly dynamic aeronautical geo-awareness;
• management and analysis of recurring operations and corridors;
• digital coordination with different bodies;
• statistical analysis and planning tools;
• support for BVLOS operations and Drone Delivery services;
• temporary airspace management for emergencies, events or critical infrastructure;
• greater integration with Air Traffic Control systems.

These capabilities will become increasingly important as drones move from individual operations to networks of recurring services.

Digital infrastructure for the aviation to come

The DINACIA case shows that managing low-altitude airspace cannot be reduced to digitising a form.

A UTM infrastructure has to connect users, aircraft, rules, aeronautical information and institutions; keep track of what happens; and give the authority an increasingly complete picture of the activity.

From the pilot launched in 2021 to its commercial consolidation since 2024, the project has built in Uruguay a digital foundation on which new capabilities and use cases can be developed.

For CIELUM, this experience sums up one of the core principles of its UTM offer: technology must adapt to each authority's processes and evolve with the ecosystem it has to manage.

Purpose

Building the digital infrastructure that allows unmanned aviation to grow in a coordinated, traceable and safe way.

CIELUM combines software, aeronautical experience and operational knowledge to help authorities and organisations manage low-altitude airspace and prepare for a new generation of operations.