In recent years, small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (sUAS) have gained widespread adoption across a diverse range of applications, including emergency response, photography, and package delivery. This has introduced operational complexities within shared airspace and has led to an increase in reported negative incidents, raising safety concerns for the general public. In response, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is developing a UAS Traffic Management (UTM) system that will permit access to controlled airspace based on a sUAS’s predicted ability to successfully and safely complete its mission. However, a fully automated system capable of swiftly approving or denying permission for flight requests can be prone to bias and must consider safety, transparency, and fairness to diverse stakeholders. In this paper, we present an initial study that explores stakeholders’ perspectives on factors that should be considered in an automated system. Results indicate that flight characteristics and environmental conditions were perceived as most important but that pilot and drone capabilities should also be considered. Further, several survey respondents indicated an aversion to any AI-supported automation, highlighting the need for full transparency in automated decision-making. Results from this survey provide a societal perspective on the challenges of automating UTM flight authorization decisions and frame the ongoing design of a solution acceptable to the broader sUAS community.