Parisian elected officials have spoken out firmly against a project to experiment with flying taxis on the Seine, carried by the Aéroport de Paris (ADP) group for the 2024 Olympic Games, denouncing an “absurd” project and an “ecological aberration”. “There is nothing wrong with this project (…), a totally useless and hyper-polluting gadget for a few ultra-privileged people in a hurry,” denounced Dan Lert, deputy for ecological transition at Paris town hall, on Tuesday.
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 airlines, including one linking the Issy-Issy heliport. les-Moulineaux to a barge on the Seine located near the Austerlitz station. The objective is officially “to experiment with a new mobility offer in very dense urban areas”. At the beginning of September, the French Environmental Authority (AE) however judged the impact study of the future experimental base of flying taxis planned on the Seine, known as the “vertiport”, to be “incomplete”, calling into question noise and visual pollution, energy consumption and the risk to the safety of passengers and Parisians.
As part of this environmental assessment, Parisian elected officials gave a negative opinion to the Paris Council on the creation of this takeoff and landing platform which would be attached to the quay of the port of Austerlitz. Councilor Florian Sitbon (PS) castigated an “absurd” project endorsed by the State and the Ile-de-France Region. “To save a few minutes for a few wealthy people in a hurry, ignorant and contemptuous of the climate emergency, we would pollute the atmosphere, we would destroy the sound environment,” he denounced.
The LR mayor of the 15th century Philippe Goujon recalled his ambition to permanently close the Issy-les-Moulineaux heliport. “The consumption of these flying machines, nearly 190 kWh per 100 km, is two to three times higher than a car with a thermal engine to transport a single passenger,” added Claire de Clermont-Tonnerre (Changer Paris). “It’s a new use that we absolutely did not need (…) like what we experienced with self-service scooters,” quipped communist advisor Jean-Noël Aqua, denouncing an “ecological aberration” coupled with “social separatism”, recalling that it will be necessary to pay “the modest sum of 140 euros for 35 km”.
