The Council of State canceled on Wednesday December 18 a ministerial decree authorizing the creation of a takeoff and landing base for “flying taxis” on the Seine in Paris, yet another setback for this contested project.
While the highest administrative court, seized in summary proceedings, had given provisional agreement to this on July 24 “vertiport” installed at the Austerlitz station, in the east of the capital, it ended up agreeing on the merits of the applicants, including associations, who considered that the government should have first consulted the Nuisance Control Authority (Acnusa), as provided by law.
Among the applicants were the City of Paris and several associations fighting against air pollution, including the French Union Against Aircraft Nuisance (UFCNA). The defenders of the project were the government and Groupe ADP, manager of Paris airports, the latter carrying out this project with the German aircraft manufacturer Volocopter. The Council of State also ordered the State to pay “a total sum of 3,000 euros to the UFCNA and others and a total sum of 3,000 euros to the City of Paris and others” for legal costs.
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Olympic and Paralympic Games showcase
This decision comes after a series of setbacks for this project whose promoters initially wanted to take advantage of the showcase of the Olympic and Paralympic Games in order to showcase an innovative and low-carbon means of transport. But they had to give it up at the beginning of August. In November, the Ile-de-France regional council canceled a million-euro grant awarded a year earlier to ADP, citing project, technical and regulatory delays.
The decree signed on July 4 by the minister responsible for transport at the time, Patrice Vergriete, limited the Austerlitz experiment to December 31. Asked by Agence France-Presse, the cabinet of his resigning successor, François Durovray, did not wish to comment on Wednesday.
The project, discussed since the end of 2020, had already seen its ambitions revised downwards before the summer, Volocopter not having obtained certification in time from the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) to welcome paying passengers. In its current version, the two-seater aircraft, including that of the pilot, is equipped with batteries powering 18 rotors arranged in a ring above the cockpit.
The Ministry of Transport and ADP have preferred to emphasize in recent months the usefulness of these machines – in future larger versions – for carrying out medical evacuations or transporting organs, rather than talking about “flying taxis”, associated with a mode of travel for the richest. While this project encountered hostility from municipal elected officials in Paris, from both the majority and the opposition, ADP defended it in the name of innovation in the face of intensifying foreign competition.
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