“This government no longer has any democratic legitimacy and it continues to go against the Paris Council [qui s’était opposé à ce projet] anti-ecological [et] “very expensive,” defended David Belliard – deputy for mobility at Paris City Hall – on France Blue Paristhis Tuesday morning. The elected official is still furious after the government registered in the Official Journal the authorization to create a floating platform on the Seine near the Gare d’Austerlitz.
The barge, already moored at the quay, will become what is called a “vertiport”. It is responsible for allowing the take-off and landing of electric flying taxis. The model of the latter, “Volocity”, is manufactured by the German company Volocopter. In the Paris region, four platforms are already operational (Bourget, Roissy, Issy-les-Moulineaux, Saint-Cyr aerodrome).
“The goal is to test our flights in real conditions, integration into the Parisian sky, and also the acceptability of the population,” declared Jean-Christophe Drai, France director of Volocopter, on France Bleu Paris in May. The project aims to be the flagship of low-carbon aviation. Alongside Volocopter, to carry out the project, there is the ADP group, formerly Aéroports de Paris.
3463 Volocopter. This German 2-seater aircraft with a 30-minute flight range made its first test flight in Dubai on September 28, 2017.
© / VOLOCOPTER
From distrust to defiance
If the government has validated the creation of the Austerlitz vertiport as well as its operation until December 31, 2024. The project leaders have not managed to obtain certification from the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). It was essential for them to launch commercial flights at a price of around 135 euros. The amount put forward is another argument for the City Hall, which prefers to talk about a “gadget for the rich” […] intended for the most fortunate.”
The latter also relies on the judgment rendered by the Environmental Authority last September. The institution had deemed “incomplete” the impact study carried out on the assessments of noise pollution, energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.
In the region, opposition elected officials have castigated the allocation of 1.5 million euros allocated to the project. Céline Malaisé, a communist elected official, speaks of “money badly spent and in total denial of democracy.” The elected official refers to a critical public inquiry into the projectThe lack of consultation with the municipalities flown over by the Issy-les-Moulineaux/Austerlitz line is highlighted.
Now the Paris city hall is seeking to file a legal appeal to invalidate the government’s decision. For their part, its defenders point out that flying taxis could be the ambulances of tomorrow, useful in particular for transplant transport.
During the Olympic Games, they will have to make do with experimental flights, free of charge, between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Their goal will be to demonstrate the effectiveness of this mode of transport in dense urban areas. They have announced that they will try to obtain certification from the EASE by the fall of 2024.