# Scaling Cross-Border Drone Operations via EASA LUC with AI View's ReADI - Event: NestGen ’26 - Published: October 2, 2026 - Length: 28:47 - Watch: https://nestgen.org/library/watch/07lfayoM-lo/ > The transcript of a recorded NestGen session, for reading or for use with an AI tool. It comes from the video's > captions; automatic captions can mishear names and terms. ## About this session Most drone programs are approved one country at a time, which makes it slow and costly to grow operations across borders. In Europe, a Light UAS Operator Certificate (LUC) from EASA gives operators a way to authorise more of their own operations and scale them more consistently. In this NestGen session, AI View Group will share how its ReADI approach uses the EASA LUC to scale drone operations across borders, and what operators should think through when building a program that can grow beyond a single country. ## Transcript **[0:00]** Hello everyone. Thank you again for tuning into this session with Nicola and me. So, this session is actually going to be about one of the biggest questions in the drone industry. How do we move from promising pilots to real repeatable operations? This for many organizations the challenge is not what drones can create. The value is very clear. Drones can inspect, monitor, respond, document, and give teams visibility across distributed infrastructure. The real challenge is getting from idea to live operation. Especially when you add regulation, safety, authorizations, site constraints, trained teams, documentation, and compliance. So, this is where today's topic becomes super important. The light UAS operator certificate, or in short, LUC. In simple terms, LUC gives a qualified operator a higher level of organizational **[1:01]** and authorization autonomy under the European UAS regulations. But I'm not going to talk too much about it because Nicola is the right person to dive into this topic. So, to guide us through this, I'm very pleased again to welcome Nicola Marietti, CEO of Iview Group and ENAV Group company. Nicola and his team sit at a very unique intersection. And Nicola will walk us through how Iview Group uses its LUC framework, ready control center, and integration with D-Flight to make drone operations faster, to activate, easier to govern, and more scalable across site. A quick housekeeping note before we begin. Please drop your questions in the chat or Q&A as Nicola presents. I would especially encourage questions about regulatory readiness, cross-border operations, activation across drone in a box, etc. And of course, if you find this session useful, please share it with your network using hashtag NextGen on LinkedIn. **[2:05]** Nicola, I would request you to please begin and share your thoughts with us. >> Okay, I'm good. Okay. That's my screen. I think it's visible. Thank you for the for your introduction. I'm Nicola the CEO of the group. I will talk about our way to scale operation with drone through our and you see it. It's a agency based on ENA National Italian National Authority and of course EASA. Uh just a just a brief brief presentation of my company and the group in which we are part. We started to be part of a bigger group in March of this year. It's the ENAV Group. ENAV is the company in Italy that manage the national airspace for for the brains. **[3:09]** And so because we are one of the biggest company in Italy and the whole the company in Italy about the drone drone operation we are in the in the right house and the right place with our with our with our holding and with our group group leader. In in the in the group there is also another company that's really significant important for us that it's the national USSP entry's provider. So we are strictly connected with the U-space environment in in Italy and we hope in the next future around around Europe because it's something that we need to do for scaling the the the operation, but let's say to start to talk with the with the LUC and the integration of the LUC with the the the U-space environment. **[4:10]** Uh about AV group, AV group uh it's a an operation company, so we use drone for many for many operation from inspection to mapping and uh everything's going to be done by by a drone from uh 2 years, so from 2023. Uh we started our ready, that is the common control center. It's a when you each 24 uh hour uh drone control center and we perform uh a lot of missions for enterprise uh customer and security and security company. Already govern the the the operation with uh with drone uh our platform connected with the FlytBase open and control uh module uh made and manage all the compliance with uh with our HELUC, so starting from the the planning operation that start from the **[5:15]** evaluation of the operation, so a customer can to us and say, "Oh, I would like to I would like to fly there or I would like to fly uh near near a highway or near a railway." Okay, we have the ability to evaluate uh the scenario like uh with the standard standard uh tools like uh like Solar Analytics, uh risk assessment. Uh we perform all the documentation and test for letting the the planning to be safe for the for the operation and we go in in in in operation and we start our our activities with the customer with integrating the our control room with a with the process of of the customer itself. So we are talking about an highway with a traffic control room. If I'm talking about a security company with a with a with a physical security security control room. Then we manage the event management **[6:23]** with the customer through procedures managed through procedure according with the with the with the customer. So could be a llama could be incident on a on a highway something like this reported by by the drone data that are flying on the infrastructure or on on the on the side. And let's manage the operational parts. So we need to fly somewhere. We we make live operation. So we we fly and we manage and report and report the event. That's the standard workflow planning from our drone operation. More on that because we we need to be compliant with many procedures and and rules. We built also a a fleet management and human management for managing all the maintenance and all the stuff related to the to the **[7:24]** availability of system, personnel and the in general the organization. We have of course a repository of documentation or record management all the information that we perform with the with the with the operational workflow starting from starting from the document that last mission life then all the logs and other documents built during the operation. The customer and also the control center have they is the KPI dashboard but also the customer can can have a a view of that regarding what is happening on on on the service that we are providing for them. So we are able to have the management and the governance of the everything happen during the the operation and **[8:26]** in the control center during the all day of activities. How we can do that? We can do that because we are one of the few company in Italy in the Europe but we have a look I have a look like you as a certificate. Our certificate is related to the operation through our common control center so we will also remote operation that's the the the the mission of our of our of our early see and early see it's a it's a a it's a big job. It's an everyday big job because the the We took the the certification in in eight months or or more then everyday you need to to to work for the maintaining of all all of all record management of all things that that **[9:29]** lets the the mission auditable for the for the for the for the for the authority. Uh, with the LUC, you know, uh, we are like an authority so authority the authority at the end trust in us and so let us to uh, authorize uh, the operation based on our scope of works that is their remote control center. Uh, and the authority will provide some uh, some audits during the year uh, for um, checking if we are working in the right way or uh, or not. Uh, that's the impact uh, on uh, on us on uh, IV group. The impact for the client that's completely different because our only benefits at the end uh, because the output is uh, is made by is made by us. First of all, the speed to the market. Many many customer came to us and **[10:32]** say, "Okay, I want to I want to set a drone uh, uh, DJI dock uh, there and it wants to start operation next week." Uh, with a standard authorization or specific authorization, uh, the customer need to wait a lot of time. With our LUC, we can speed up in few days this operation for going live into the project. And it's it's uh, disruptive for for for the customer. It's that we also do not believe on that but really at the end we are in place and we are operational in few in few days in a week uh, in the in the in the in the worst case. The second is the scalability because with the LUC, we can we can uh, up apply on different use case on the same way. And so if the customer wants scaling on the same use case or or want to open other other use case **[11:34]** we can check uh, in in few time if it's possible or not. So our our answer if it's not it's not in one in one minute. If it's yes we can go live in two days. So it's a it's fantastic for the customer because they have an answer at the end. Uh The least the the last but not the least is the is the governance. We work with enterprise enterprise companies big company want to use drone but the responsibility in using drone is something that is not managed yet in those kind of companies and could happen that the responsibility is the is the is a of the chief of the company also if there is a pilot somewhere in in a department of the company of the company itself. With the with LUC and with our platform ready that it's a day uh the the platform that uh permit to us to uh to manage all the process in direct **[12:39]** way cover the governance of the customer responsibility. So everyone knows that the drone is flying because someone has get for a for a mission that day and the pilot is Mr. John if you 25 minutes and that's the track of the the lock of the of the mission has been authorized by uh the the operational manager and the department of of maintenance of the company. So everything is is logged. Everything can be can be checked during during during the time and so everyone is safe from from one side as that we are the local order and the customer that know that we are working on their quality and specific procedure procedure workflow. That's it's really important because **[13:41]** at the end the the customer trust in us as a safe environment drone company and that's the one of the one of the scalability way that we that we have in in place for building project and project inside those kind of company. That's the time to market. So it's something that I already talk about but you can see the difference between between non not UCE procedure and UCE procedure. Then if we had also the USS B and U-space service provider that we already have integrated we have **[14:42]** more regulated operation because we will act in a regulated airspace environment and that's the next step of of our project. So already we are integrated all the all the flight authorization and flight management between the platform. Now I think that in one month we will go live also with with the this this features. The activation road map Uh, it's quite simple for for us, so in as I see it, in one or two day we are able to say to you this project is possible or not. And if not, we can we can uh, try to understand how we adjust something to let them possible. Okay, so **[15:44]** it's not a no and and nothing of course. We want to fly, so we we need the best the best solutions for the for for for you. Uh, then we we set up the pilot, so we start the dock or we we set up everything from communication to platform and and everything and we test all the mission planet through through our platform. Uh, we will normally uh, manage uh, uh, stage uh, time of 1 2 3 weeks. It's depend of the of the project just to retest and recheck that everything is okay and and also to complete the procedure with the with the customer because we need also to agree on some way to communicate with the with with the customer department and so on. In these two or three weeks we set up **[16:45]** all the all the internal procedure of the of the project the business the business procedure of the of the project then we start to scale to scale with with the with the variations we start to fly fly fly and fly again. >> [gasps] >> Perfect. >> That's our story and that's the the situation in place for for for our and you see we are managing really a lot of docks and the drones because it's not a matter of docket drone but also a piloted drone that >> Right. >> can be used inside the inside our LUC. >> Great. Thanks, Nicola. Thanks for sharing that very practical guide on, you know, how to get started with drone operations with an LUC certified operator like I view group. There are, of course, a lot of interesting questions. I'll try to pick it up one by one. So, the first one that we have received here is, "Ready manages drone **[17:51]** operations across highway and railway infrastructure from a single center. How many docks and sites can one Ready operator manage at the same time?" >> Okay. That's a that's a good question because it's different from different part of the world. In this moment in time is is one by one. Anyway, it's one by one, so we manage one pilot one one docks at time. So, we have optimized the schedule for managing for managing all the docks with less people as possible, of course, as less pilot as possible. But the rule is one dock one one flight one pilot. It's not one dock one pilot. It's one flight per per per pilot. But as I as I know in in other countries like like USA or Asia, someone arrived to six dock for for for one pilot. So, our goal **[18:54]** in in Europe is to I've been having the LUC. Now we are working with our authority for asking for more more more drone for for a single pilot. That is really possible and and simple. It's only a It's only a matter of demonstrate that safe enough. >> Yeah. >> Like Like my one by one. >> Yes, absolutely. There's another interesting question that we run infrastructure that spans hundreds of kilometers. Does the ready model work for us with a single center or would we need regional centers at certain scale? >> Uh okay. Um it's a It's um It's um It's a mix. We Depending on Depending on the on the the number of kilometer, of course. 100 km so we In the In the previous In the **[19:56]** previous meeting, we talked about our project of around 100 km of security controlling site. We We can share uh between the regional, we can share between between different control center. It's not It's not a problem because it's a our platform. It's a cloud platform so we can manage the the the operation as as we want. Uh You can consider that with a UC A UC is a European certification so we are working in Spain. We are working in Finland uh with different project. And so we could In this moment in time, we are working with our control center here but we could we could create a control center in Spain and manage the operation from there. **[20:58]** >> Absolutely. So I think towards the next question, ready combines remote piloting with AI analytics. When the AI flags something on an infrastructure asset, does the remote pilot verify before it reaches the client or the customer? Or does the alert go straight straight through their systems? >> Yes. Yes, that's is mandatory, of course, otherwise false alarm are the the the the the normal the normal alarm. Of course, our our pilot are expert of the domain of the customer. So, if we are talking about traffic monitoring, we understand about traffic about incident and uh uh and everything. Uh if you're about security, they are at the end the security guard uh not showing not not uh uh behind uh a fixed camera, but behind a behind a drone. So, we we know about the domain of **[22:01]** the customer. And uh of course, so we are at the first the first filter of the information. Uh that's that's mandatory. >> Perfect. Understood. Uh another question that uh is asked over here is you obtained one of Italy's first LUC certificates for remote operations without anyone on site. For operators in other European countries trying to get the same, what did ENAC actually require you to prove? >> Uh um It's it's not a matter of ENAC. ENAC is the Italian is the Italian is the Italian authority. Uh we are all together under EASA. So, any national authority has process for let uh for letting the the the LUC **[23:02]** to an operator who has to get four. Um the interesting part here as I said is that the LUC is uh it's a European certification. So, >> Right. >> based on the on the European rules as I as as we did uh if you want to uh to fly in another country, we have the cross-border operation. That means that we do not need to have another look in uh in Spain or in France. We need to communicate our our LUC to the national authority. >> Right. >> to the Spain authority. And they can give us the local condition. Uh but they cannot say to us, "No, you cannot use it or your LUC because it's a European certificate." So, it's it's mandatory for that. So, we need we need to communicate. We need to >> Okay. >> to to talk with the with the other national authority, say that we have **[24:03]** this, they check what we have, and they say, "Okay, you can you can you can operate uh based on our local condition." >> Right. Got it. Thanks so much, Nikola. So, I think uh again, it was quite insightful. And some of the key takeaways from this session, right, that I wanted to summarize is firstly, the LUC is a major enabler because it helps move drone operations away from to kind of, you know, move them away from isolated case-by-case authorizations toward a repeatable, governed, and scalable model. And I think the second takeaway that Nikola as well mentioned is speed. For customers, this means less time lost between idea. And not just for customers, by the way. If there are companies that operate for customers or provide solutions to customers, but they require uh operator. You know, a company like AI View Group and an LUC certified operator could really **[25:06]** help you fast track that entire process. And with this you can actually, you know, get the path from pilot site to multi-site rollout in a much more practical and faster way. And I think the third most important is governance. An LUC is not just a permission to fly. It is about a structured safety management, clear responsibilities, audit trails, operational procedures, KPIs, evidence and compliance. So, it was quite again, you know, important to hear what Nicola said and organizations do not have to necessarily build all of this capability alone. By working with an LUC certified operator, customers can bring the site, the use case and the business need while AI View Group or an LUC certified operator will bring the operating framework, control center capability and expertise and operations to make to make the entire service very real and practical. **[26:08]** >> Yeah, I I if I have just 1 minute, I would like to >> Sure. >> I would like to answer to another question that it's it's an important question, I think. >> Yeah. >> Is the question about the cybersecurity and the needs to comply and see because it's it's a it's an important question. It's the topic >> Yeah. >> of of any project because we we need we have the LUC that cover our our authorization to fly. But because we are talking about the critical infrastructure most of the time, the critical infrastructure have a strict uh, constraint related to the cybersecurity of the operation. And so, putting a drone and putting a sensor into the into the infrastructure is something that need to be checked by the cybersecurity department of the company. And that's what's happened every time we **[27:09]** start a project. Our our counterpart uh, is not many of the time is not the business partner, but is the cybersecurity. And I I agree about that because it's an important topic. So, the ready platform has been developed with a high standard of security. And we are working with many in NIS2 uh, infrastructure owner. Also, ENA our company is an infrastructure is a NIS2 infrastructure owner. So, we are inside this the this this environment. And this is something we have already addressed and we are managing. >> Right. Absolutely. That was a very important question, Nicola. And thank you so much for covering that as well. It really helps audience understand the nuances of every component in, you know, the entire command center type of NDB loss type of **[28:13]** operations. So, thank you so much. And really looking forward for everyone to tune in to more sessions. Please feel free to ask more questions. If you have anything to discuss with Nicola, you can always connect with him over LinkedIn, over his email. We We'd be more than happy to share Nicola's email as well over here. So, yeah. Please feel free to connect with him. And thank you all so much for tuning in and joining us for this exciting session. Thank you, Nicola. >> Thank you. Bye-bye.