"Absurdity for the super-rich": Paris council aims to block Volocopter flights

The Paris city council wants to take legal action to prevent air cabs from flying in the city during the upcoming Summer Olympics. David Belliard, the city's deputy mayor responsible for transport, told France Bleu that the city council is against the project because it is useless, expensive and anti-environmental. He is seeking an injunction.

In doing so, the city council wants to take action against a decree issued by the French government this week. According to the decree, the operator of Paris airport, Aeroports de Paris (ADP), is allowed to build a vertiport on the Seine near Austerlitz station in the center of Paris. It may be operated daily between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. until December 31, 2024. ADP plans to use air cabs from the German manufacturer Volocopter.

Demonstration flights at most

Four Vertiports are already in operation, at Paris-Charles-de-Gaulle and Le Bourget airports, in Issy-les-Moulineaux in the south-west of Paris and at Saint-Cyr-l'Ecole airfield near Versailles. A small airfield in the center of Paris was still missing. Belliard thinks it is absurd to pay 130 euros for a 35 km route. Dan Lert, another deputy mayor, described the project as an absurdity for the super-rich. As the European Aviation Safety Agency has not yet granted Volocopter a license, only free demonstration flights are likely to take place - two per hour and up to 900 by the end of the year.

In addition to the actual flight operations with electrically powered multicopters, Volocopter's concept also includes a network of so-called vertiports. Volocopter put one of these, which also complies with EASA specifications, into operation in Rome in October 2022 on a trial basis. In addition to the actual landing site, a hangar and a parking lot, there is also a charging infrastructure. Volocopter plans to use a platform called VoloIQ, which will be operated in the Microsoft Cloud, to control and coordinate flight operations.

(anw)