Urban air mobility is no longer a speculative future. Regulators and operators entered 2024 with clear milestones and left the year with concrete legal and technical frameworks that make initial commercial operations realistic. That progress creates an obligation for policymakers in 2025: adopt a prioritized, harmonized, and enforceable set of New Year’s resolutions that move UAM from demonstration to safe, equitable service.

Resolution 1: Treat the powered-lift rule as the baseline, not the finish line. The FAA’s Integration of Powered-Lift final rule and accompanying SFAR published in October 2024 provides the operational and pilot-training scaffolding to introduce a new aircraft category into the National Airspace System. Regulators should now focus on implementing the SFAR through clear directives and training syllabi, and they must publish timelines for the cascade of advisory circulars and guidance material operators need to plan safe operations. The rule opened the door. Now agencies need to walk the industry through it with practical, auditable standards.

Resolution 2: Make vertiport standards a deliverable. Initial AAM operations will lean on existing airports and heliports but vertiports will be essential for scalable urban service. The FAA’s AAM infrastructure guidance and related advisory material point to engineering briefs and design updates that recognize vertiports as a specific class of facility. Local airport sponsors, municipalities, and developers must be given a predictable approval path for vertiport construction, environmental review expectations, and a clear process for aeronautical studies so that communities are not surprised by last-minute projects. Regulators should publish checklists and sample permitting packages to reduce uncertainty.

Resolution 3: Require transparent environmental and community engagement up front. Noise, visual intrusion, and fairness of access are the top political risks to UAM acceptance. European regulators and agencies are explicitly tying UAM benefits to environmental outcomes and community needs when they project commercialization dates. Regulators in the U.S. and EU must require early public-facing noise and emissions analyses, defined community mitigation measures, and binding commitments from operators on routing and operating hours before vertiport permits are granted. Advance transparency reduces battles later and protects the industry’s social license to operate.

Resolution 4: Enforce software and data governance for operational platforms. Modern UAM depends on integrated operational platforms that manage bookings, pricing, aircraft allocation, and pilot interfaces. When those systems move from experimental to commercial use they must meet minimum cybersecurity, data privacy, and safety assurance requirements. Recent FAA engagement with operator software ecosystems shows regulators are already evaluating such systems as part of the entry-to-service process. Agencies should require documented safety cases for mission-critical software, third-party security audits, and mechanisms to revoke or remediate software approvals when evidence of systemic risk appears.

Resolution 5: Harmonize pilot training, licensing, and crew augmentation rules internationally. The FAA’s SFAR creates an alternate framework to produce the initial cadre of powered-lift pilots. That is a necessary domestic step. But global operations and multinational manufacturers need comparable standards. The U.S. and EU should coordinate on competency standards, acceptable training devices, and rules for single-controls training so that a training program in one jurisdiction is useful across others. Harmonization reduces redundant oversight burdens and supports cross-border interoperability for aircraft and workforce.

Resolution 6: Build enforceable corridors and traffic management interfaces now. Concept of operations work shows that dedicated UAM corridors or corridors with prioritized access will accelerate safe integration at scale. Agencies must publish operational concepts for corridor designation, airspace use priorities, and the data exchange requirements between UAM operators and air traffic service providers. Performance-based standards for detect-and-avoid, communications, and contingency handling should be adopted quickly so that airspace managers can test real-world traffic scenarios with known acceptance criteria. The GAO’s recent analysis underscores that short term solutions will need evolution, and that regulators must plan for long term changes in airspace rules as operations scale.

Resolution 7: Tie public funding and incentives to measurable safety and equity outcomes. Federal and local funding for vertiports, test corridors, and community pilots should be conditioned on demonstrable commitments to safety audits, noise mitigation, and equitable service plans for underserved neighborhoods. Public money should not simply subsidize first-mover commercial models that prioritize premium routes without community benefit. Structured, transparent grant terms will produce better public outcomes and reduce political backlash.

Resolution 8: Create an independent oversight repository of operational incidents and lessons learned. Early AAM operations will generate cases that reveal latent regulatory gaps. Agencies should establish a public, anonymized repository for incidents, close calls, and mitigation strategies so that the industry learns quickly and regulators can identify systemic issues. This repository should be accessible to manufacturers, operators, local governments, and research institutions and should be backed by requirements to report defined events within prescribed timeframes.

A practical checklist for regulators and policy makers in 2025:

  • Publish a calendar of expected advisory circulars and guidance tied to the powered-lift SFAR.
  • Issue model vertiport permitting templates and environmental review guidelines.
  • Define minimum cybersecurity and software safety certification expectations for operational platforms.
  • Coordinate internationally on pilot training and certification reciprocity.
  • Fund community monitoring and independent noise measurement before approving commercial service.

UAM can deliver faster, lower-emission trip options and new economic opportunities if the regulatory community treats 2025 as a year of disciplined delivery rather than rhetorical support. The hard work will be local permitting, harmonized standards, and enforceable requirements for software, infrastructure, and community protections. Regulators should keep that checklist on their New Year’s resolution list and report progress publicly. The public and the industry both win when rules are clear, timelines are realistic, and enforcement follows commitments.