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Paris set to test its first flying airport taxis this summer

Paris says it will test its first flying taxis in June, the first step in an ambitious plan to establish a fully-functioning air network by 2030.

Published: 19 January 2021 15:20 CET
Paris set to test its first flying airport taxis this summer
A Volocopter air taxi is presented at the Pontoise airport in Cormeilles-en-Vexin, on September 30th 2020. Photo: AFP

Travel of any kind seems like a distant dream at the moment, but if all goes to plan, Parisians may be able to take a flying taxi to the airport in 2030.

RATP, which runs the Paris public transport system, is in the process of working together with Aéroports de Paris (ADP) and Choose Paris Region, the government agency set up to promote the French capital, on getting the new taxi system up and flying. 

“We're envisaging some thousand flights per day,” Marie-Claude Dupuis, director of strategy, innovation and development at RATP, told Le Figaro.

While they won't be fully operating until 2030 at the earliest, the first flying taxis will apparently do test runs in June 2021.

“During the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, our goal is to do demonstration flights with people on board,” said Dupuis.

By then, “three operators should be operational,” she said.

On Monday, RATP, ADP and Choose Paris Region decided on 31 companies out of 150 candidates who will be part of the new ecosystem.

Among them were Volocopter (German), Airbus, Ehang (Chinese) and Pipistrel (Slovenian).
 
Saves time

France is not alone in looking to move traffic off its roads and up in the air. As countries worldwide want to upgrade their urban mobility, businesses are jumping on the trend to join the booming market.

IN PICTURES: Paris tests out new 'flying' water taxi as way to beat the traffic

 

Edward Arkwright, Managing Director of ADP, told Le Parisien the taxis “do not only inspire dreams, but have intrinsic qualities: greatly reduced noise, a low-carbon means of transport, a lower cost of maintenance and infrastructure, and offers relatively high value on saving time.”
 
 
Paris already has “Sea Bubble”, flying electric taxis driving on the Seine river. Photo: AFP
 
The flying taxis, which look like tiny helicopters, will be able to transport travellers from the French capital to the airport or back in a fraction of the time it takes with a regular taxi or public transport. 

A 40-minute journey (depending on traffic) from La Défense, west of the French capital, to the northern airport Charles de Gaulle, will be slashed down to 15 minutes.

Most of the taxis are electric, while some run on hydrogen, so they are less polluting than regular cars.

However the model is still too expensive and the operators are working on how to cut costs by increasing the number of seats in each car to six, up from two currently.

“To be profitable, operators will also have to free up the pilot's seat,” Dupuis said, “even if that means steering the machine from the ground before switching to a fully autonomous vehicle.”

In other words, passengers will be sticking to regular taxis or the RER for the foreseeable future.

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TRAVEL NEWS

German train strike wave to end following new labour agreement

Germany's Deutsche Bahn rail operator and the GDL train drivers' union have reached a deal in a wage dispute that has caused months of crippling strikes in the country, the union said.

Published: 26 March 2024 09:55 CET
German train strike wave to end following new labour agreement

“The German Train Drivers’ Union (GDL) and Deutsche Bahn have reached a wage agreement,” GDL said in a statement.

Further details will be announced in a press conference on Tuesday, the union said. A spokesman for Deutsche Bahn also confirmed that an agreement had been reached.

Train drivers have walked out six times since November, causing disruption for huge numbers of passengers.

The strikes have often lasted for several days and have also caused disruption to freight traffic, with the most recent walkout in mid-March.

In late January, rail traffic was paralysed for five days on the national network in one of the longest strikes in Deutsche Bahn’s history.

READ ALSO: Why are German train drivers launching more strike action?

Europe’s largest economy has faced industrial action for months as workers and management across multiple sectors wrestle over terms amid high inflation and weak business activity.

The strikes have exacerbated an already gloomy economic picture, with the German economy shrinking 0.3 percent across the whole of last year.

What we know about the new offer so far

Through the new agreement, there will be optional reduction of a work week to 36 hours at the start of 2027, 35.5 hours from 2028 and then 35 hours from 2029. For the last three stages, employees must notify their employer themselves if they wish to take advantage of the reduction steps.

However, they can also opt to work the same or more hours – up to 40 hours per week are possible in under the new “optional model”.

“One thing is clear: if you work more, you get more money,” said Deutsche Bahn spokesperson Martin Seiler. Accordingly, employees will receive 2.7 percent more pay for each additional or unchanged working hour.

According to Deutsche Bahn, other parts of the agreement included a pay increase of €420 per month in two stages, a tax and duty-free inflation adjustment bonus of €2,850 and a term of 26 months.

Growing pressure

Last year’s walkouts cost Deutsche Bahn some €200 million, according to estimates by the operator, which overall recorded a net loss for 2023 of €2.35 billion.

Germany has historically been among the countries in Europe where workers went on strike the least.

But since the end of 2022, the country has seen growing labour unrest, while real wages have fallen by four percent since the start of the war in Ukraine.

German airline Lufthansa is also locked in wage disputes with ground staff and cabin crew.

Several strikes have severely disrupted the group’s business in recent weeks and will weigh on first-quarter results, according to the group’s management.

Airport security staff have also staged several walkouts since January.

Some politicians have called for Germany to put in place rules to restrict critical infrastructure like rail transport from industrial action.

But Chancellor Olaf Scholz has rejected the calls, arguing that “the right to strike is written in the constitution… and that is a democratic right for which unions and workers have fought”.

The strikes have piled growing pressure on the coalition government between Scholz’s Social Democrats, the Greens and the pro-business FDP, which has scored dismally in recent opinion polls.

The far-right AfD has been enjoying a boost in popularity amid the unrest with elections in three key former East German states due to take place later this year.

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