Governance for Unmanned Aviation Regulation and Deployment in Airport

Objective

Governance for Unmanned Aviation Regulation and Deployment in Airports. As unmanned aviation technologies rapidly evolve, legal systems remain largely reactive, struggling to address the operational, safety, and liability challenges posed by drones in shared airspace. GUARD-AIR proposes a structured, phased model of legal preparedness, focusing on Stage II: the complex coexistence of manned and unmanned air traffic in mixed-use airport environments. The project addresses critical legal questions concerning airport liability, sovereignty, counter-UAS security, U-space governance, and the redefinition of classical aviation concepts. Through a combination of doctrinal legal research, comparative case studies, and empirical fieldwork, GUARD-AIR will produce practical legal models for UAS-ready airports. Hosted by the International Institute of Air and Space Law (IIASL) at Leiden University, and supervised by world-leading scholars in air law, the Fellowship will enable two-way knowledge transfer between academia and regulatory practice. GUARD-AIR also incorporates open science practices, gender and diversity analysis in legal surveillance frameworks, and a wide-reaching dissemination plan. The project directly supports EU strategies such as Drone Strategy 2.0 and U-space Regulation 2021/664. It will generate policy-relevant legal tools for regulators, airport authorities, and civil aviation bodies across Europe, strengthening institutional resilience and legal foresight in the face of unmanned aviation’s rise.