The Paris Olympics that will take place later this month will be the first to offer a flying taxi service. Volocopter was granted permission to offer flying taxi services between Roissy-Charles de Gaulle and Le Bourget airports to the Quai d'Austerlitz flying taxi airport located in the heart of Paris.
Volocopter was granted permission to operate until December 31, 2024. Each taxi can carry two passengers. A dedicated air route for this service allows it to operate from 8am to 5pm and fly between 120 and 300 meters high. The license granted also limits only two flights per hour.
Although permission was granted by the authorities, it still received opposition from some groups who worried that flying taxis would cause air pollution. However, this short-term service will be used as a laboratory to see if flying taxis can be offered as public transport in Paris.
Since 2019, the organizers of the Paris Olympics announced that they will offer this service, only at that time it involved Airbus. Volocopter was chosen probably because it has conducted the most successful flight tests and has already signed several MOUs to begin operations. In Malaysia, for example, Volocopter is studying building a flying taxi in collaboration with Malaysia Airports and Skyports.