AIRMOB Spanish cluster: Shaping IAM education to Europe and Spain

Innovative Air Mobility (IAM) is emerging as a transformative component of transport systems, integrating advanced aerial platforms, digital airspace management, and sustainable mobility solutions. Encompassing unmanned aircraft systems (UASs) and electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft (eVTOLs), IAM aims to optimize cargo transport, emergency services, asset monitoring, and passenger mobility.

As part of the AIRMOB project (Project No. 101194074), a project co-funded by the European Union through the Erasmus+ Programme, roadmap for education, this paper reviews key technological, infrastructural, regulatory, and educational challenges associated with European IAM deployment. Furthermore, the paper analyzes international implementation cases alongside the Spanish context, detailing regional initiatives and regulatory progress in metropolitan areas like Madrid. Special emphasis is placed on public-interest applications—medical logistics, emergency response, and environmental monitoring—expected to pioneer operations.

The study highlights the Spanish AIRMOB Cluster, operating as a regional Centre of Vocational Excellence (CoVE). By bridging gaps between industry, academia, and Vocational Education and Training (VET) providers, the Spanish cluster addresses local skill deficits in autonomous flight, UTM, and green aviation, ensuring workforce readiness aligns with evolving European frameworks. 

Findings indicate that successful IAM adoption requires coordinated action among regulators, educational institutions, industry, and public authorities to guarantee safety, sustainability, interoperability, and public acceptance while building a skilled future workforce. And this paper presents Spanish AIRMOB Cluster as a body that could be the neccesary link between the different interested stakeholders, promoting the adoption of IAM within the region.