z Industry news
WORLD ATM CONGRESS 2021 z by PHILIPPE DOMOGALA, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR After COVID cancelled the 2020 edition of the World ATM Congress, the 2021 event shifted from its normal date in March to 26 October. According the organizers, 5,400 attendees and 172 exhibitors from 117 countries travelled to Madrid, Spain. In addition to only allowing vaccinated or tested people to attend, the organisers imposed strict hygiene measures in addition to temperature checks on entering and mandatory mask carriage throughout. On the agenda were an extraordinary number of presentations and panels, with 225 speakers in all. Spain's king, Felipe VI, opened the WAC on the morning of 26 October.
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In his address, he welcomed his fellow pilots (he is a pilot himself) and the aviation professionals from over a hundred countries. More noticeable however were those that were absent from the event: the USA was missing, despite some stands had been reserved as shown on the maps that were distributed at the entrance. They obviously still faced travel restrictions. EUROCONTROL, SESAR and the European commission were also absent, which left a big vacuum in the European arena.
All this empty space was filled by drones in all different shapes, sizes, functionality and purpose. Some had little or no relevance to ATM, as they were mainly designed for pure military or police operations. Many start-up companies and universities showed off their prototypes, with some blissfully unaware of personal safety regulations. Most will hopefully never be certified to carry passengers or to be operated anywhere near people. The interesting bits as usual are in the various presentations, debates and panels. A huge number this year, possibly explained by the fact that there was no central CANSOATCA conference unfortunately.
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