Drones, flying taxis race with rockets, skyways heading to traffic chaos

As people try to beat traffic on the road, skies around the world are turning so crowded that it’s jamming airspaces and causing concern among airlines. Unlike before, aeroplanes are no longer the only air-based transportation that flies in the vast skies.  Rockets, drones, and “flying taxis" are now taking up the bulk of the airspace.

The rapid increase in new rockets—led by Elon Musk’s SpaceX—is expected to intensify challenges as the expanding commercial space sector competes for airspace with tens of thousands of passenger jets. At the same time, the rise of drones and the anticipated arrival of electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft (eVTOLs), commonly known as flying taxis, will add complexity to managing lower airspace, where aircraft ascend and descend.

Meanwhile, the number of passenger planes will grow by a third to more than 36,000 aircraft by 2034, a report by Oliver Wyman said. Research by Bain suggests that by the next decade, passenger planes will share its airspace with 10,000 flying taxis and thousands of rockets.

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Air traffic and plane delays

Forget shooting stars, the only shiny things that will be visible in the skies will be aircraft and space-faring vehicles.

A preview of the problem that airlines will face in the coming years is already apparent by the sheer number of flight delays. Last month, Qantas postponed multiple flights between Australia and South Africa following a warning from the US government about the potential re-entry of SpaceX rocket debris into the southern Indian Ocean.

Chris Quilty, co-chief executive of space business consultancy Quilty Space, said, “It is the wild west. The rate at which this is happening is starting to impact the aviation community.”

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In 2022, Spain partially closed its airspace due to fears over the uncontrolled re-entry of debris from a Chinese rocket, causing delays to hundreds of flights.

Flying taxis – the new reality?

Last year, Bain conducted another study that predicted the introduction of commercial flying taxis in the next two to three years.

All these flying taxis — which ultimately are not expected to have pilots — will need to be safely integrated into airspace below roughly 5,000 feet.

Regulators in both the US and UK are scrambling to brace for impact as flying taxis are set to become the new reality.

Andy Sage, director of safety transformation at Nats – UK’s air traffic control company, said: “The future promises a rapidly increasing number of diverse airspace users, both crewed and uncrewed, which we see being managed within a single, integrated traffic environment.”