The new Alert Areas feature in Airspace Link’s AirHub Portal gives public safety agencies and critical infrastructure operators real-time notifications when drones enter their defined 3D airspace volumes, aligning with a broader national push on counter-UAS security before the 2026 FIFA World Cup, Super Bowl and other mass events.
With drone incursions drawing increasing attention from public safety agencies and critical infrastructure operators, Airspace Link has introduced a new Alert Areas feature inside its AirHub Portal platform. The tool is designed to give security teams real-time notifications when live drone flights enter user-defined 3D volumes of airspace, the company said.
The announcement comes as federal agencies rapidly deploy new funding and authorities for counter-UAS technologies ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup and other large-scale events. FEMA recently awarded $250 million through its new Counter-Unmanned Aircraft Systems Grant Program to 11 World Cup host states and the National Capital Region, with funds earmarked for drone detection, tracking and mitigation capabilities.
How Alert Areas Work
Alert Areas allow customers to define monitored airspace volumes inside AirHub Portal, including a geographic boundary, upper and lower altitude limits, and designated recipients for notifications. When enabled sensors feeding AirHub detect a live drone entering one of those volumes, the system generates an alert once per detected flight per entry, with notifications delivered both in-app and via email.
Airspace Link positions the feature as a way to move from passive log review to active risk management. Security teams, operations centers and incident commanders can see incursions as they happen and decide whether to pause operations, redirect aircraft, or deploy on-site resources, rather than discovering the activity after the fact.
Under the hood, the company describes Alert Areas as sensor-agnostic. The feature is intended to work across a growing portfolio of integrated detection technologies and to support customers who want to connect new or existing sensors into the AirHub platform over time, rather than being locked into a single hardware stack.
Target Users: Public Safety, Utilities, Event Venues
According to Airspace Link, initial Alert Areas use cases include state and local public safety and security agencies, utilities and infrastructure operators, and organizations managing high-visibility events or facilities such as stadiums, campuses and other restricted sites.
For those users, the company is pitching Alert Areas as a way to give operations centers and field teams a shared view of low-altitude airspace activity in and around sensitive zones—particularly during events and emergency response operations where manned, unmanned and crewed resources may all be sharing the same airspace.
The feature lives inside AirHub Portal, Airspace Link’s existing application that already provides pre-flight risk assessment, LAANC authorization and B4UFLY services as part of the company’s role as an FAA-approved UAS Service Supplier.
World Cup and Counter-UAS Funding Backdrop
Airspace Link is explicitly positioning Alert Areas in the context of the FIFA World Cup 2026 and other major events where drones have been identified as a key security concern. FIFA’s chief safety officer has previously called drones the “greatest security challenge” for the tournament, and FEMA’s C-UAS grant guidance stresses detection, tracking and mitigation capabilities for host jurisdictions.
In parallel, the Department of Homeland Security has highlighted additional federal investments—roughly $115 million—in counter-drone technologies to help protect World Cup venues and America250 events, including tracking systems and other detection infrastructure.
Airspace Link has been active in advising cities and states on how to tap that funding, previously outlining how its AirHub platform can serve as a Drone Operations Management System and integration layer for multiple C-UAS technologies at the municipal level.
Roadmap: Analytics, Whitelisting and Operations Center Integration
The company describes Alert Areas as the foundation for a broader airspace security and operational awareness roadmap within AirHub Portal. Planned enhancements include:
- Incursion analytics to identify patterns in drone activity over time,
- In-app whitelisting of trusted drones to reduce false positives, and
- Integration with the AirHub live operations center display so alerts can be visualized alongside other operational data in a centralized view.
For World Cup host cities and other jurisdictions drawing on FEMA’s C-UAS grants, tools like Alert Areas sit at the software layer of a larger architecture: tying together multiple detection feeds, ensuring stakeholders see the same picture at the same time, and documenting incursions for after-action review and future planning.
Airspace Link is actively working with municipalities on counter-UAS planning and grant applications, framing AirHub Portal—and now Alert Areas—as a way to connect detection technologies with the digital infrastructure many cities are already using to govern routine drone operations.
