VIRGINIA BEACH, Va., - DroneUp, LLC in Virginia Beach, Va., announced in December that it has acquired AirMap, Inc., a digital airspace and automation company. AirMap's is known for its unmanned aircraft system traffic management (UTM) service. The acquisition comes on the heels of DroneUp's recent partnership with Walmart to offer drone delivery to consumers from a growing network of drone airports, called DroneUp "Hubs."
This acquisition will aid DroneUp's UTM pilot network and growing ground infrastructure, which provides services for as many as 100,000 global daily flights. AirMap's flight data will help DroneUp establish market and regulatory leadership, and further advance safe last-mile drone services.
As drone flight volume increases, safely managing flights is often beyond human scale and requires an automated system to plan, request clearance, and factor in potential hazards and airspace restrictions.
DroneUp operates commercially throughout the U.S. and is an authorized government drone services provider for 13 states serving public sector organizations. It has more than 190 active waivers and authorizations with the FAA. AirMap is one of three UTM providers currently deployed internationally and provides UTM in Switzerland and has customer base in North America, Europe, Southeast Asia, and Australia.
