Issue Urban air mobility awaits specific regulation and faces noise, airspace and cyber challenges

Summary

The report expects urban air mobility based on air taxis and drones to become a reality within a few years, yet stresses that it still needs purpose-built regulation. The hurdles it lists are noise and visual intrusion, integration with conventional air traffic management and cybersecurity. The system also presupposes building a dense network of vertiports connecting urban, rural and logistics hubs. Technical demonstrations are already under way, from the Dubai vertiport project to trials in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Santiago de Compostela under AMU-LED. In Spain, the innovative air mobility cluster has published a white paper on vertiports that lays groundwork for the regulatory debate. The report suggests that benefits such as shorter travel times will only materialise once these challenges are overcome.