As we see more widespread use of drones, we also see an uptick in companies that work to keep low-altitude airspace secure, compliant, and deconflicted. One of those U.S.-based companies building such invisible, digital highways is Airspace Link, which is based in Detroit.
Among Airspace Link’s leaders is Ana Healander, Co-Founder and VP of Customer Success/Strategic Growth. Alongside her co-founders, Ana has spent years building the software platform that bridges the gap between state DOTs, local law enforcement, federal regulators, and everyday commercial operators.
Fresh off overseeing low-altitude airspace coordination and UTM infrastructure for host cities during the World Cup, Ana sat down with The Drone Girl to discuss what city planners still get wrong about drone integration, managing a Series B startup with her husband, and how she navigates leading a high-growth company at the intersection of tech, aviation, and family life.
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The Drone Girl: Going back to the early days of Airspace Link in 2018, there is strong interest in airspace security today, but that wasn’t always the case. What was the hardest part about convincing local municipalities and state DOTs that they needed to care about ‘airspace planning’ before drones were even flying at scale?
Ana Healander: The honest answer is that we were asking people to plan for a problem they couldn’t see yet. In 2018, most city and state officials had never had a drone incident cross their desk, so “airspace planning” sounded abstract — something for the FAA to worry about, not a county road commission or a city permitting office. We were essentially asking municipalities to build infrastructure for traffic that hadn’t arrived.
TDG: So what changed the conversation?
Ana: Reframing it away from drones entirely and toward something they already managed: their own airspace as an asset, the same way they think about roads or utility right-of-way. Once officials saw it that way — as something they already had a stake in, not a hypothetical future problem — the conversation got significantly easier.
What’s accelerated all of that since is the urgency around counter-UAS. Officials who once saw airspace planning as hypothetical now see, very concretely, that they need one common operating picture showing every aircraft above them — crewed and uncrewed — not a patchwork of siloed systems. That drive to actually understand what’s flying overhead, and to protect the public underneath it, has become one of the biggest forces pushing this infrastructure forward. It’s the same instinct we were asking cities to have back in 2018, just with a much clearer “why” attached to it now.
TDG: What is the biggest misconception state and local governments still have about drone integration?
Ana: That it’s primarily a security or nuisance issue to be managed defensively, rather than infrastructure to be planned proactively. A lot of local governments still think about drones the way they’d think about noise complaints — something to respond to, not something to build for.
TDG: I like that. Early on, it seemed like there was so much unnecessary frame of drones just being a menace.
Ana: The cities that get the most value out of this are the ones that flip that: treating low-altitude airspace as an economic asset that supports delivery, inspection, public safety, and emergency response, not just a source of incidents to log.
TDG: For the commercial drone operators reading The Drone Girl who want to fly legally in cities where Airspace Link is integrated: What is one thing you wish every Part 107 pilot understood about how city planners view low-altitude airspace?
Ana: That the city isn’t the obstacle — it’s usually trying to say yes. Most commercial pilots assume that if a city’s system flags their flight plan, it means someone’s trying to block them. In reality, the cities we work with are trying to build a clear, fast “yes” for legitimate operators, which requires them to actually see and understand what’s flying in their airspace first.
TDG: That’s really good perspective. It doesn’t have to be a battle!
Ana: The pilots who have the smoothest experience are the ones who treat their city’s airspace platform as something to work with early — filing a plan, getting authorization, sharing what they’re doing — not as a hurdle to route around.
TDG: With BVLOS (Beyond Visual Line of Sight) rules evolving and Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) on the horizon, what is the next major hurdle Airspace Link is tackling over the next 12 to 18 months?
Ana: The core challenge is that BVLOS and AAM both assume a level of shared situational awareness that most cities and states don’t have infrastructure for yet. You can’t safely scale beyond-visual-line-of-sight delivery or advanced air mobility without a common operating picture that public safety, commercial operators, and regulators can all trust at the same time.
TDG: Now we covered your company’s work around the World Cup. What’s next for Airspace Link?
Ana: Our focus is making sure the infrastructure we’ve built for events like the World Cup — real-time detection, multi-agency coordination, integration across public safety and commercial platforms — becomes the standing layer that BVLOS and AAM operations can actually run on, rather than something every operator has to solve for themselves city by city.
TDG: How do you think the industry has evolved since Airspace Link launched?
Ana: The first wave of urgency was counter-UAS — protection, detection, basic airspace awareness. That’s largely where the conversation has been for the last year or two, and it’s still critical. But the next phase is Drone Operations Management — systems like our AirHub Portal — and true UTM, unmanned traffic control, not just seeing what’s in the sky but actively deconflicting and prioritizing flights. We already have an FAA-approved version of that UTM for our customers today, built for things like giving first responders flight priority in congested airspace.
TDG: Okay, now we HAVE to talk about drone delivery.
Ana:That’s the piece that’s about to get tested at real scale. Amazon Prime Air, Walmart’s Wing, and Zipline are all expanding aggressively, and we’re talking about thousands of delivery flights happening every single day in dozens of markets. Counter-UAS answers “what’s up there and is it a threat.” UTM answers “how do we let all of this operate safely, at volume, without grounding half of it every time two flight paths cross.” That’s the hurdle over the next 12 to 18 months — moving cities from airspace awareness to genuine airspace management.
TDG: Airspace Link is famously a family-and-friends endeavor at the top. You co-founded the company alongside your husband, Michael Healander (CEO), and Daniel Bradshaw (CTO).
Ana: When Michael and I got married, our dream was to work together.
TDG: How do you manage the dynamic of building a fast-paced, Series B-funded tech startup together while keeping work and personal life balanced?
Ana: We made it a priority to continue doing fun things when we were not at work. We love being active, so hiking, walking our dog and playing tennis are a way for us to connect because work can be stressful and we are busy, but we do our best to continue taking care of ourselves so that we can be our best for Airspace Link and our customers.
TDG: That is just great marriage advice in general!
Ana: Also, as Co-Founders, you have to respect each other’s role in the business. I don’t try to be the CEO, but I try to support his vision and dreams while doing what I love, which is helping my customers along their drone journey.
TDG: Founding a company is no small feat! What was your most unexpected challenge?
Ana: I’d say the most unexpected challenge has been the pace of the drone industry. I didn’t expect it to be as slow moving as it has been.
TDG: Oh yes, long-time Drone Girl readers know all about that.
Ana: Getting cities/states ready also has taken more time than I had anticipated. I completely understand that community leaders juggle a lot of daily challenges — airspace management and drone integration being just one of them — so the timing has gone a bit slower than I would have liked, but I think we’re moving quicker now, and our success stories continue to grow.
TDG: What advice would you have for other women who want to found a company?
Ana: My advice to any woman out there who has an idea and wants to start their own business is to expect the unexpected. You also have to be okay taking a step back to eventually take many steps forward.
TDG: Yes, I’ve definitely had to kill some projects that I liked to reach long-term success. That was the case for you, too, I’m guessing?
Ana: We had to make some real sacrifices to bring our business to where it is today, and knowing that is what it takes gives you the strength when things don’t always go the way you want them to.
Setbacks are a part of the growth process, but a positive mindset and a true belief in your abilities to bring your passion to life are key to longevity, in my opinion.
Follow Ana Healander on LinkedIn or learn more about Airspace Link at its website.
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The post Meet Ana Healander, Co-Founder of Airspace Link appeared first on The Drone Girl.