Paris aims to provide a leap forward for visitors to the 2024 Paris Olympics by providing flying taxis directly from the airport to the championship venue.
From Charles de Gaulle Airport to the trains or buses in the north of Paris, the city of Light is currently facing an hour-long arrival.
These companies have provided a perfect opportunity to use the Olympics at the Paris Air Show in the past week to serve future vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) machines and they will initiate feasibility studies.
In 2010, more than half of humans lived in urban areas, and we believe we will exceed 60% by 2030.
Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury
He said that it is time to understand the “third dimension” of local commuting – the air.
If we are convinced that in the next five years, 10 years, 15 years, 20 years or 30 years of low altitude will be conquered, we must implement these conditions today.
ADP Group Executive Director Edward Ack Wright
Until 2025, the fast train will be designed to reduce congestion and travel time between Charles de Gaulle Airport and the city center.
For Airbus, the aircraft manufacturer that manages public transport services in Paris, airport managers ADP and RATP, the Olympics is an opportunity to showcase the city’s urban transport capabilities.
ADP will select a “Vertiport” site by the end of the year that will be able to host flying taxis from one of the 10 airports in the surrounding area of Paris.
Arkwright said the idea was to prepare the site within 18 months and would require an infrastructure investment of about 10 million euros ($11.3 million). He added that the project will test the link “through the existing helicopter corridor”.
Ideally, the service will make the flying taxi take off once every six minutes.
In order to make VTOL a reality in 2024, ADP has partnered with Airbus, which has been involved in all-electric propulsion urban transport solutions for many years.
The manufacturer already has two prototypes – the single-seat “Vahana” and the four-seat variant “CityAirbus“.
These 2 projects will be collected into a vehicle that can entertain the first use situation, Faury explained.
“This partnership is a unique opportunity to develop technology solutions, products, regulatory frameworks, and economic models,” adds Faury.
“This project not only reduces restrictions on infrastructure but also air traffic because it involves testing in specific (air) corridors.
Jean-Louis Rassineux, Deloitte Aviation and Defense Director.
“This is a massive launch, which will be complicated,” Rassineux told AFP.
With the necessary progress in battery power and anti-collision detection, he said there are “limitations on compatibility and traffic regulation.”
But there is also the question of the extent to which this concept is widely accepted by the public.
Rassineux warns that “safety levels are as strict as air traffic” and “real value added to existing transportation systems” are needed.
Deloitte estimates that by 2040, the US-only flying taxi market will reach around $17 billion.
However, “there is still a way to go before the flight vehicles are integrated into urban traffic,” warned French Transport Minister Elisabeth Borne.
Despite this, Flying taxis still see the initiative to create embryo services in time for the 2024 game, which is one of the “important stages of “the emergence of a complete transportation service”, which will be “integration and respect for the environment”.