In recent years, Innovative Air Mobility (IAM) has become an increasingly common topic of discussion: flying taxis and cargo drones designed to move people and goods within and around cities over short or medium distances. On paper, this new form of urban mobility promises greater sustainability, livability, and connectivity (as we discussed here). Once just a futuristic concept, it is now a concrete prospect thanks to technological advancements and strong public and private interest: prototypes work, testing campaigns are multiplying, and investments are flowing in. But a crucial question is becoming harder to ignore: is society ready for this?
No matter how advanced the technology may be, if the market is not prepared, if people are unconvinced, if local authorities don’t know where and how to integrate these new vehicles, there is a real risk that innovation will hit a dead end.
“The adoption of a technology like innovative air mobility—one that strongly impacts urban space, daily life, and our collective imagination—requires more than technical development alone,” says Aurora De Bortoli Vizioli, senior consultant at Deep Blue with a PhD in psychology. “The future of urban air mobility will also depend on our collective ability to build public consensus and social legitimacy around it”.
European strategies, including the Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy and Drone Strategy 2.0, stress the same point: technical feasibility is not enough. Public acceptance and engagement from all actors involved in bringing the technology to market—citizens, stakeholders, municipalities—are essential. Public and social acceptance is not a detail. It is a prerequisite if IAM is to move beyond prototypes and pilot projects and become an integrated part of urban development.
From technology to society: the road to Innovative Air Mobility
A real turning point arrived in 2021, when EASA — the European Union Aviation Safety Agency — launched a study to investigate how society perceives urban air mobility, collecting views from stakeholders and surveying citizens across several European countries. According to De Bortoli Vizioli, interest in the subject has since grown enormously, and scientific literature on public and social dimensions of drone operations has expanded at an exponential pace.
The earliest investigations focused on how citizens perceive drones: what advantages do they foresee, and what worries them? From those questions, several research topics emerged. Privacy quickly became a central issue: even when no sensitive data is collected, the mere feeling of being watched can cause discomfort or hostility. Noise is another concern: while measurable, it is also subjective, and strongly affected by flight paths or the level of personal familiarity with drones overhead. Economic aspects and the willingness to pay for IAM services have also been studied, as well as how drones should be integrated into city spaces to avoid unnecessary disruption—questions that directly involve urban planners.
Safety, paradoxically, has received slightly less attention, perhaps due to the assumption that it is already “built into” the technology. Yet safety remains a fundamental pillar for building trust and, ultimately, acceptance.
Gradually, research expanded from public perception to the broader concept of social acceptance, which is tied to what is known as societal readiness: a community’s capacity to integrate disruptive technologies without conflicts or systemic stress. Understanding this requires much more than questionnaires. Local governments, category associations, industry players, and regulators must all be involved. “At the beginning, public and social acceptance were considered the same thing. Eventually, it became clear that they represent different levels of understanding and integration,” says the consultant. “A technology may be well-received by the public, but if its implementation clashes with regulatory gaps, lack of infrastructure, or the opposition of key stakeholders, progress will halt”.
Urban air mobility therefore needs an integrated strategy — one that combines technological development with governance, communication, and active engagement. Trust must be cultivated gradually, through public events, live demonstrations, and immersive experiences that allow citizens and stakeholders to “touch and see” what is coming, reducing uncertainty and fostering informed participation.
Infrastructure for drones: the EALU-AER project
In Shannon, Ireland, the European project EALU-AER, in which Deep Blue is a partner, is currently testing both technology and infrastructure designed to enable drone flights that are safe and fully traceable. As De Bortoli Vizioli explains, this is a high Technology Readiness Level initiative, backed by an investment of around nine million euros. The project includes the development of a vertiport — a true airport for drones — located near Shannon Airport; a dedicated radar to monitor the airspace and detect any type of aircraft, including drones; and a network of antennas that ensures constant communication coverage during operations.
These infrastructures are crucial for enabling BVLOS — Beyond Visual Line of Sight — operations, where the remote pilot no longer has direct visual control over the aircraft. In such situations, safety depends on a solid technological chain that tracks the drone’s position at all times and promptly identifies any anomalies. EALU-AER drones are not lightweight quadcopters, but small aircraft designed to fly longer distances and carry significant payloads.
A distinctive feature of the project is the coexistence of the vertiport and a traditional airport. This required deep coordination with existing air traffic but could become a major advantage for the future, both operationally and commercially. One can imagine a passenger landing from an international flight and then boarding a flying taxi to quickly reach a tourist destination or a hospital.
Alongside physical infrastructure, the project also includes a digital layer: the U-space platform. This system acts as a control and coordination centre for drone flights. It collects data, analyses nearby traffic, establishes predetermined flight routes, and allows operators to manage operations in advance. In the years to come, the operator will increasingly take on the role of supervisor rather than pilot, as flights become pre-programmed and drones are equipped with autonomous emergency landing systems.
Public and Social Acceptance of Drones in Ireland
Although flying taxis and similar concepts are often portrayed as the real revolution ahead, the reality is that, at least for now, passenger transport remains a long-term prospect. The first practical applications concern activities that enjoy greater public approval: medical and emergency transport; commercial goods delivery, especially in remote or hard-to-reach areas; monitoring of infrastructure such as bridges, power lines and railways, as well as environmental and agricultural inspections; and support for law enforcement.
These priorities clearly emerged from surveys, including those conducted within EALU-AER. In fact, one of the project’s objectives is also to investigate public and social acceptance of drones and IAM technologies in general, a task coordinated by Deep Blue. “We carried out both a qualitative study, interviewing a wide range of stakeholders — drone operators and industry professionals, but also police officers, journalists, professors and local authorities involved in Dublin City Council and its Smart Dublin program — and a quantitative study through questionnaires addressed to Irish citizens,” explains De Bortoli Vizioli. Overall, feedback from both stakeholders and citizens has been positive: people are largely optimistic and aware of the benefits. Above all, there is already a good level of knowledge about the technology and its potential services, as also shown by a Dublin City Council survey launched in 2021 with 900 respondents”.
Stakeholders are confident that drones will provide essential public services — from medical delivery to emergency response — while also improving logistics and connectivity in urban, rural and remote areas. They also see strong opportunities for monitoring activities and new business models. “This was expected,” notes De Bortoli Vizioli. “Ireland is a hub for technological development, and we know this factor supports acceptance. Moreover, drone-based services are already operating in some regions of the country, increasing familiarity with this type of operation. Irish authorities are actively cooperating with industrial partners, regulators and research institutions to tackle emerging challenges and seize the opportunities of a rapidly evolving sector”. Still, some uncertainties remain: the need to progressively adapt the current regulatory framework; the complexities of certification; and the question of social acceptance when, for example, passenger transport becomes a reality. The most relevant concerns include safety, privacy and noise pollution, but also fears related to job loss, potential harm to wildlife and the risk of social inequality between those who can afford the new services and those who cannot.
Interviews with citizens painted a very similar picture. Almost three-quarters of participants recognised the potential of drones in medical emergencies or search-and-rescue missions. Improvements in logistics and deliveries were also rated highly, with 69.7% acknowledging the value of faster and more efficient delivery services. Some 52.9% of respondents highlighted possible environmental benefits, while only 42.9% pointed to improved passenger mobility. “Only 5.9% of participants stated that they do not believe drones provide any benefit, which confirms there is widespread optimism toward the technology,” De Bortoli Vizioli remarks.
When asked about the use of drones for law enforcement activities such as crowd or traffic monitoring, 63% of respondents expressed positive or very positive opinions, although a significant portion remained neutral or even had a negative opinion. “This shows a clear sensitivity to privacy issues: people acknowledge the potential benefits in terms of safety, but remain wary of surveillance and possible misuse,” she says.
Privacy is indeed the main concern regarding drone operations. This is followed by safety fears and worries about noise: no one wants skies filled with a constant buzzing. “Many citizens also expressed unease about the lack of transparency around drone flights: very often, people do not know who is operating the drone, for what purpose, or whether the mission is authorised,” adds De Bortoli Vizioli. This opacity fuels suspicion that the pilot may be inexperienced, that the flight may not comply with safety rules, or that data might be collected unlawfully, with consequences for privacy. All this highlights how important it is to communicate and enforce regulations clearly and effectively, preventing distrust from spreading even to legitimate operations. Indeed, a significant portion of survey participants supported engagement activities such as public information campaigns, demonstrations, consultations and surveys.
“Despite some sample limitations — more men than women, and generally high education levels — the survey results align with those previously collected by Dublin City Council and with what emerged from stakeholder interviews,” De Bortoli Vizioli concludes. “To ensure both technical and social readiness, future efforts will need to focus on clear regulatory communication and transparent enforcement; on developing tools that allow citizens to ‘feel in control’ — knowing which drone is flying above them and why; on promoting information and demonstration campaigns; and finally, on adopting fair pricing and access models that ensure the benefits of Integrated Air Mobility are distributed across all communities”.
