(AFP / JULIEN DE ROSA)
Groupe ADP, manager of Paris airports, said on Monday that it remained “fully mobilized” to bring to fruition the project to experiment with electric flying taxis for the Paris Olympic Games this summer, despite negative opinions from politicians and stakeholders. experts.
Groupe ADP staff remain “fully mobilized, alongside our partners, to make this innovation and decarbonization project possible, on airlines in Ile-de-France,” the company told AFP.
For ADP, of which the State controls the majority of the capital, “without experimentation, it is difficult to answer the legitimate questions linked to the project of which we are convinced of the usefulness, particularly in health matters”.
ADP, with its partners the German manufacturer Volocopter and the Ile-de-France region, wants to take advantage of the Olympic showcase to experimentally operate electric flying taxis on three lines: from Paris-Charles-de-Gaulle airport to that of Le Bourget, and from the heliport of Issy-les-Moulineaux on the one hand towards the aerodrome of Saint-Cyr-l’Ecole, near Versailles, and on the other hand towards a barge on the Seine at near the Quai d’Austerlitz, in the south-east of Paris.
This project is pending certification of the Volocopter aircraft by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), but also a green light from the French Ministry of Transport, which has so far supported the initiative.
However, negative signals have multiplied in recent months, the latest being an unfavorable opinion delivered on February 2 at the end of a public inquiry carried out in November and December 2023.
The investigating commissioner, after hearing the stakeholders and obtaining 1,748 contributions from the public, noted in particular that this experiment “is not of interest a priori if it is centered on commercial flights corresponding to a mode of transport which, in the Ile-de-France transport, cannot offer an alternative to current modes nor participate in decongestion of traffic.
“I consider that the gains potentially brought by the project do not justify the disadvantages which will be borne during the experiment,” he added.
At the beginning of September, the Environmental Authority judged the impact study of the future Austerlitz experimental base, known as the “vertiport”, to be “incomplete”, calling into question noise and visual pollution.
As part of this environmental assessment, Parisian elected officials had issued a negative – non-binding – opinion to the Paris Council on the Austerlitz vertiport, some denouncing an “absurd” project and an “ecological aberration”.