The Environmental Authority (AE) has deemed the impact study of the future experimental flying taxi base planned on the Seine in Austerlitz for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games (OG) “incomplete”, citing in particular its acoustic consequences.
In an opinion delivered on Friday September 8 on this emblematic file carried by the Aéroports de Paris Group (ADP), the AE called on the company to “reconsider the scope of the project and that of the analysis of its effects to fully appreciate it the consequences on the affected populations and the possible impact on the natural environment”.
Groupe 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-France airport Gaulle 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 level of the Quai d’Austerlitz, in the south-east of Paris.
To minimize nuisance, this connection will fly over the Seine towards the east to the Porte de Bercy, then head back towards the west above the ring road. But the AE considered that “the impact study, focused on a few aspects, is incomplete by choice of the project owner, who limits the scope of its analysis to the sole operation of implementing the platform on the river “.
“Visual pollution”
For the authority, the challenges of the project are both “acoustic”, linked to “energy consumption and [to] greenhouse gas emissions”, without forgetting “visual pollution due to the multiplication of aircraft in a space previously forbidden to fly over.” “The project also presents challenges in terms of security and safety for the populations it flies over,” she notes.
Contacted by Agence France-Presse (AFP) late Friday afternoon, Groupe ADP was not able to react immediately. The VoloCity machines, which look like large crowned insects, for their two-seater models, with eighteen rotors, are four times less noisy than helicopters, assures Volocopter.
If ADP assured last June that these machines would be “there” for the Olympics, their manufacturer is currently trying to obtain European certification which will allow them to fly, and is hoping for a green light from the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) in spring 2024.