As a result of the many technological developments that have occurred recently, Innovative Air Mobility (IAM) has emerged as a promising new development. The implementation of this new technology is planned for the coming years, and while it holds great potential, it is crucial to explore and understand the opinion of citizens, as social acceptance assumes a preponderant role in its success. This highlights the need to assess how citizens—IAM’s primary stakeholders—perceive this technology and how these perceptions can be effectively measured. The literature that focuses on the acceptance of IAM often uses the terms acceptability and acceptance interchangeably, without clearly distinguishing between them or providing a framework for measurement. This study aims to explore these concepts and develop two indices to assess both acceptability and acceptance - measuring citizens' perceptions before and after exposure to this new technology. To better understand and explore citizens' perceptions of the introduction of this new technology, five focus groups were conducted with 25 participants. The development of the semi-structured interview plan for the focus groups was tested twice before being applied, to ensure that the questions were clear and followed a logical sequence. The transcripts from these sessions were analysed using a combination of deductive and inductive content analysis, and the final statements were validated by experts. This process led to the development of a survey designed to measure both acceptability and acceptance. Survey data was collected at different time points and countries, including the Scilly Islands (UK) (N=22), Lisbon (Portugal) (N=160) and Athens (Greece)(N=150). Acceptability was measured before the participants had any contact with IAM. The data analysis resulted in the development of two indices that stakeholders can use to measure the public attitudes towards this emerging technology.

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• Economia e Gestão - Ciências Sociais