Air Taxis to Debut in Paris for the Olympics

In Paris during the 2024 Olympics, the launch of air taxis is planned. Special aircraft resembling a hybrid of helicopters and drones will be used for this purpose. Currently, there are already five special launch pads around Paris, and one platform is situated on a floating barge on the Seine, according to Euronews.

If such taxis indeed make their appearance in the French capital, it could mark the first significant real-world demonstration of flying vehicle technology. Parisians will need to approve the presence of electric taxis in the sky. The Aéroport de Paris group, actively participating in the project, claims that these innovations are four times quieter than helicopters.

At the outset, trips on air taxis are likely to be short and expensive. This is due to the limitations of battery technology, which restricts the distance and the number of passengers a flying vehicle can transport.

Edward Arkwright, CEO of ADP, speaks of a true mobility revolution. "New forms of air mobility are low-carbon aviation," he specifies. "They enable various types of services. We are primarily thinking about transporting people, packages, emergency and medical services. But there are other areas of application we haven't thought of yet."

The air taxis will be supplied by the German group Volocopter with its lightweight two-seater aircraft. Currently, the company is in the process of obtaining approval from the European Aviation Safety Agency. Jean-Christophe Drai, Volocopter's commercial director in France, clarifies, "Our top priority, to which we are directing all our resources, is the certification of the machine. We aim for something reasonable, doable, something that will really work, not promises we will never be able to fulfill."

Some air taxi developers attended the recent Paris Air Show to showcase their products and garner industry support. One of the participating companies was the German Volocopter, which plans to offer a flying taxi service during the Olympics.

However, no air taxi manufacturer has received government approval to launch their service in France yet. Volocopter hopes to be the first. The companies still need to conduct extensive weather tests on their aircraft and submit thousands of pages of documentation to the European Union Aviation Safety Agency.