New horizons for aerial mobility: Italy authorises the flight of professional drones over urban areas and critical infrastructure.
Rome/Fiumicino, 12 March 2026 — ENAC and UrbanV announce the first Specific Assurance and Integrity Level (SAIL) III operational authorisation in Italy: a decisive step towards bringing drones from experimental activities to real applications serving cities, with a focus on connections in complex urban environments and logistic services capable of significantly reducing transport times.
SAIL III is not just a technical parameter, but the safety standard required to permanently integrate drones into the urban fabric, enabling operations even overpopulated areas, critical infrastructures and the configuration of complex missions in controlled urban settings. In particular, the collaboration aims to enable critical missions such as connections between distant hospitals or logistics centres, benefiting the healthcare and manufacturing systems, and citizens.
This important milestone was achieved thanks to a series of flights over the previous months taking off from the Pianabella Vertiport – the sandbox operated by UrbanV at Rome Fiumicino Airport – which enabled the validation of operational procedures and the technological platform. The star of the operations was the drone DLV-2, operated by UrbanV and the result of a strategic partnership with the manufacturer Speedbird. This aircraft was chosen precisely because of its full compliance with the rigorous standards required for SAIL III operations: an essential technical requirement that guarantees the levels of safety and integrity needed to operate in complex urban environments.
The flights involved the delivery of a parcel by landing at Cineland in Ostia after crossing the A91 Rome-Fiumicino motorway and the Rome-Fiumicino Airport railway line, over a distance of 6 km, before returning to the departure vertiport.
The trials were conducted by UrbanV in close coordination with ENAC, ENAV, Aeroporti di Roma (ADR) and in collaboration with Cineland Ostia and were carried out without any impact on the day-to-day operations of Rome Fiumicino Airport; demonstrating the possibility of safely integrating drones into conventional airspace and flying over important land transport infrastructures such as roads, motorways and railway lines.
This type of mission anticipates integration with future Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) and contributes to the implementation of the National Plan for Advanced Air Mobility adopted by ENAC as a strategic framework for the evolution of the national economic system towards safe and sustainable air mobility.
‘From experimentation to operation: we are building urban air corridors for logistics missions that save time where it is needed most — in cities,’ says Ivan Bassato, President of UrbanV. ‘The combination of dedicated infrastructure, shared procedures and integration with the authorities creates the conditions for scaling up services: from the suburban/extra-urban, where drones currently perform simple tasks, to the heart of the city, enabling new paradigms of innovative air mobility.’
‘The path towards advanced air mobility at the service of citizens and territories,’ says ENAC Director General Alexander D’Orsogna, ‘has entered a concrete phase. The trials conducted in the Fiumicino sandbox, made possible by the collaboration between institutions and private operators, opens up a real prospect of innovative services that enhance the use of the “third dimension”, in line with the National Strategic Plan for Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) adopted in 2021. The aim is to guide the national economic system towards sustainable and cutting-edge air service models, based on vehicles with electric engines that reduce travel time, energy consumption and emissions. This is a revolution for all those time-sensitive applications in the healthcare and emergency sectors. Demonstration activities such as the one carried out today confirm that these solutions can be integrated without impacting air and road mobility in neighbouring areas, marking a further step towards a future that is already here.’
‘Achieving SAIL III in Italy is a crucial step for the entire advanced air mobility ecosystem. With the DLV-2, we have demonstrated that it is possible to combine technological innovation, full regulatory compliance and the highest safety standards when operating in complex urban environments,’ says Manoel Coelho, CEO of Speedbird Aero. ‘This mission is not just a technical milestone, but also concrete proof that drones can become a reliable infrastructure serving cities, logistics and the healthcare system.’
Institutional support and operational coordination
The activity was carried out with the coordination of the Prefecture of Rome, which ensured liaison between the competent authorities, and with the cooperation of the Rome Police Headquarters, the Municipalities of Fiumicino and Rome, ANAS and the companies RFI and FS of the Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane Group, which provided support in the analysis and authorisation.
Why it matters for cities
- Reliability in complex environments: processes, roles and risk mitigations are defined before the operation, making each mission repeatable and scalable.
- Time saved where it matters most: in time-critical supply chains (health, emergency, urgent spare parts) even a few minutes can make a difference.
- Scalable routes: starting with B2B missions in controlled corridors, extending to urban networks integrated with ATM/UTM and future eVTOL platforms and vertiports.
From sandbox to industrial scale
The joint ENAC-UrbanV project demonstrates in the field that drones can operate safely even in highly complex operational scenarios, enabling service models that can be replicated in other Italian and European metropolitan areas. The planned flight campaigns and their performance and safety metrics will guide the evolution of the services and their future industrialisation.
