French government approves eVTOL airport in Paris

An eVTOL airport may be set up on the Seine in Paris. Commercial flights are unlikely to be operated from there for the time being.

The Volocity from Volocopter will probably only take off for demonstration flights during the Olympic Games in Paris.

(Image: Volocopter)

Jul 9, 2024 at 10:39 pm CEST

2 min. read

By

Oliver Bünte

This article was originally published in German and has been automatically translated.

The French government is pushing for electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft (eVTOLs) to be allowed to take off and land for the Olympic Games in Paris. It has allowed the operator of Paris airport, Aeroports de Paris SA, to build a vertiport on the Seine near Austerlitz station in the center of Paris. This was reported by Bloomberg on Tuesday. The French government had issued a special decree for this purpose.

Restricted operation

According to the decree, the Vertiport may only be operated daily between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. until December 31, 2024. This is an experimental phase. Only two flights per hour are therefore permitted, with a maximum of 900 flights in total. The reason for this is the concerns of city officials and Green MPs. They believe that the noise level and energy consumption, and therefore any greenhouse gas emissions, could otherwise be too high.

The Vertiport was not well received in Paris City Hall. They had spoken out against the small airport, as it would cause noise pollution and would only be built for the "rich".

In any case, it is not entirely clear whether eVTOLs will still be flying commercially over Paris from July 26, the start of the Olympic Games. This is because the regulatory authorities first want to take a close look at the eVTOLs before granting approval. There are also the certification deadlines for the air cabs to be allowed to take off at all.

The German aviation company Velocopter, for example, did not receive approval in time for commercial flights to the Olympic Games. The two-seater VoloCity can only take off for a few demonstration flights to the Olympic Games, a company spokeswoman explained. Volocopter competes with Joby Aviation and Archer Aviation, among others.

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