Will Paris see flying taxis take off during the Olympic Games? A "vertiport" platform has been set up on the Seine by the Gare d'Austerlitz train station, and the French government has given the green light to this controversial project by Groupe ADP, the Parisian airport operator. But the City of Paris – and the mayor of the 13th arrondissement where the vertiport is situated, Jérôme Coumet – and a collective of organizations fighting air pollution are challenging this decision in court. They're seeking to obtain the urgent cancellation of the authorization granted on July 4 by the Ministry of Ecological Transition, and its minister delegate for transport Patrice Vergriete. Le Monde has learned that two applications for interim injunction were lodged on July 15 and 17.
Manufactured by the German company Volocopter, the flying taxi is a small electric helicopter limited to two seats (including the pilot's), powered by 18 rotors arranged in a ring above the cockpit. Its promoters intend to use the showcase of the Olympics to demonstrate the feasibility of carbon-free aviation in an urban environment. The project is being supported by the Ile-de-France region, which has granted a subsidy of €1 million.
"The development of low-altitude aviation for urban air mobility is an adventure full of promise – for employment, for the environment and for the lives of Ile-de-France residents," said the region's president, Valérie Pécresse, in November 2022, at the inauguration of a first experimental platform in Pontoise, in northern France. "Just as the first airline ticket was issued in 1914 in Florida, I want the first passenger flight in a vertical take-off and landing aircraft to take place in our region, Ile-de-France. The Olympics are an incredible opportunity and showcase to launch this project."
Initially, three routes were scheduled to operate during the Olympic Games: between Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle and Le Bourget airports (north-eastern Paris), between Issy-les-Moulineaux heliport (western Paris) and Saint-Cyr-l'Ecole airfield (near Versailles, western Paris), and between Issy-les-Moulineaux heliport and the Austerlitz vertiport – with only the latter route concerning inner Paris.
To avoid flying over buildings as much as possible, flying taxis are supposed to follow the Seine river and the Paris ring road. In a decree dated July 4, the government authorized ADP to operate the Austerlitz platform on an experimental basis "until December 31, 2024 at the latest". The text specifies that flights must be operated "between 8am and 5pm" without exceeding the rate of "two movements per hour," meaning "a total of 900 flights" until the end of the year.
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