An air taxi in Paris for the 2024 Olympics? A project spinning heads

While the chosen aircraft and the first vertiport are ready, the project promoters still have to convince the authorities and regulators.

Transcript

00:00 Choosing the air rather than the road will soon be possible in Paris.

00:08 An electric air taxi service is to be launched during the 2024 Olympic Games.

00:13 But what will the trip actually look like?

00:15 We visited Europe's first helipad, a test terminal near Paris.

00:21 You will proceed to the check-in.

00:24 So we need to verify that you are the right passenger arriving at the right time.

00:28 Here is our small passenger lounge and about five minutes before the departure they will

00:33 be asked to board the air taxi.

00:35 Here again we've got a biometric gate and they are allowed to board.

00:43 The concept is that people will be able to board from five vertiports around the French

00:48 capital, one of them downtown on a barge floating on the Seine.

00:52 But residents have yet to decide if they'll accept these electric machines, which are

00:56 four times quieter than a helicopter.

00:58 The new aviation mobility is the carbon-based aviation that is present today.

01:02 It's an aviation that brings new uses, new uses, those that we think of, transport of

01:07 people, transport of packages, of the emergency, the medical and then those that we don't think

01:12 of yet.

01:13 For the manufacturers, the German company hopes to rapidly obtain the European Aviation

01:19 Safety Agency's green light.

01:22 Our first priority today and what we are all looking forward to and all our resources

01:27 are dedicated to, is the certification of the machine.

01:31 So we aim for a reasonable, something that is deliverable, that will be able to really

01:36 exist rather than doing things and promises that we will never be able to keep.

01:41 Paris will be the first world capital to launch a flying taxi service.

01:46 The project's carriers believe in it.

01:47 They have less than a year before the Olympics to convince regulators and authorities.

01:54 Cyril Forneuris, Euronews, Paris.

01:56 [Whoosh]

01:58 [BLANK_AUDIO]