The Countdown Begins: Flying Taxis and the Paris Olympic Games (Part 2)

The tri­als at Cer­gy-Pon­toise Air­port, lead­ing up to the Paris Olympic Games in July, 2024 are imper­a­tive for the future suc­cess of the eVTOL indus­try. Over 4 bil­lion peo­ple world­wide could watch on TV, air taxis fly­ing over the French cap­i­tal dur­ing the Games, not for­get­ting the 10 mil­lion spec­ta­tors attend­ing. The cor­rect prepa­ra­tion is essen­tial.

Dami­an Kyse­ly, Sky­ports Head of Europe and the Mid­dle East, offers the lat­est news on how things are shap­ing up and whether it is real­is­tic and fea­si­ble for air taxis to be fly­ing ath­letes and spec­ta­tors to sport­ing events in two years time, giv­en the many chal­lenges that lie ahead. Sky­ports is a lead­ing com­pa­ny con­struct­ing the ver­ti­port infra­struc­ture for the Olympics.

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Chris Stonor Asks The Ques­tions

When are you begin­ning con­struc­tion of the ver­ti­port at Cer­gy-Pon­toise Air­field?

Con­struc­tion begins in mid-to-late July. Plan­ning per­mis­sion has been grant­ed. Some of the ground­work is already done. Com­ple­tion of this project should be late Sep­tem­ber.

Why was Sky­ports cho­sen? Is it through your con­nec­tion with Volo­copter?

We have been work­ing very close­ly with Groupe ADP (AéRo­port De Paris) for a num­ber of years as well as Volo­copter in Sin­ga­pore. The idea for a tri­al ver­ti­port was con­sid­ered around 18 months ago as part of the ADP’s Air Mobil­i­ty Ecosys­tem sur­round­ing the Paris region. We sub­mit­ted a pro­pos­al and were select­ed to build the ter­mi­nal.

Is this Sky­ports sec­ond con­struc­tion after Sin­ga­pore in 2019?

Yes, although we are cur­rent­ly design­ing or about to con­struct three oth­ers around the world. These include one in the Greater Lon­don area, to be opened next year. The loca­tion will be announced short­ly.

In the near future how many of your con­struct­ed ver­ti­ports will be either portable or per­ma­nent stand­ing?

There is to be a vari­ety. We are con­struct­ing a sec­ond one in Sin­ga­pore, a con­tin­u­a­tion of our col­lab­o­ra­tion with Volo­copter, which will be our first per­ma­nent struc­ture.

Back to Cer­gy-Pon­toise, how big is the ver­ti­port?

The ter­mi­nal build­ing itself will be around 1,200 square feet. Then there is a taxi­way, stands etc.. as part of the air­side area.

Who is pay­ing for this con­struc­tion?

Groupe ADP own the land. Sky­ports will pay for the con­struc­tion of the ter­mi­nal. ADP are respon­si­ble for the air­side infra­struc­ture.

Which eVTOL com­pa­nies are test­ing here?

Present­ly, Volo­copter is the most active. Oth­ers include EHang, Joby, Ver­ti­cal Aero­space, Ascen­dance Flight, Lil­i­um and Air­bus, as well as a num­ber of car­go drone com­pa­nies.

Cer­gy-Pon­toise Ver­ti­port (com­put­er graph­ic): [Pic: LeP­arisien]

What spe­cif­ic areas are you tri­alling?

In the ter­mi­nal, we will be test­ing the pas­sen­ger expe­ri­ence like board­ing and dis­em­bark­ing, along­side tech­nolo­gies includ­ing bio­met­ric iden­ti­ty man­age­ment and a sys­tem that Sky­ports is cre­at­ing con­cern­ing sit­u­a­tion­al aware­ness, e.g what is hap­pen­ing in and around the ver­ti­port.

Oth­er tri­als will include the turn-a-round of the eVTOL; recharg­ing of bat­ter­ies, air­craft main­te­nance and ground to air com­mu­ni­ca­tions; noise and weath­er data. And lat­er on oper­a­tions sur­round­ing more than one craft oper­at­ing at the ver­ti­port at the same time. This is the end goal.

The unique­ness of this project is the num­ber of eVTOL and car­go drone com­pa­nies involved with dif­fer­ent air­craft con­fig­u­ra­tions. We are real­ly look­ing for­ward to these tests. The data col­lect­ed will be essen­tial for the devel­op­ment of future AAM reg­u­la­to­ry frame­works.

How long will these tri­als last?

They are to con­tin­ue until the open­ing of the Paris Olympics in July, 2024. The aim for every com­pa­ny involved is to use the test­bed for the Games’ prepa­ra­tion. After­wards, the intent is to com­mer­cialise urban air mobil­i­ty around the Paris region. ADP has said the Cer­gy-Pon­toise ver­ti­port will remain open for as long as it is need­ed.

Anoth­er option is to move the ter­mi­nal, as it is trans­portable, and locate it else­where, per­haps in Paris dur­ing the Olympics, for com­mer­cial use. We’re not sure yet how this may work out.

ADP have said there’ll be at least three dif­fer­ent ver­ti­ports locat­ed in the Paris region dur­ing the Games. You rep­re­sent one, which com­pa­nies are behind the oth­ers?

I believe a major­i­ty will be locat­ed at either exist­ing ADP-owned air­fields or heli­ports around Paris. We may still be involved in con­struct­ing some, we are in the mid­dle of dis­cus­sions, but as ADP own, con­trol and oper­ate the pro­posed sites, a num­ber will def­i­nite­ly exist dur­ing the Games. There are one or two Green­field loca­tions in the cen­tre of Paris, based in a non-avi­a­tion envi­ron­ment, which are present­ly being looked at.

Do you know where the con­firmed loca­tions are in Paris?

I have been told, but am not allowed to divulge this news, yet. Some will be locat­ed in cen­tral Paris and oth­ers close to the Olympic Vil­lage.

This leads on to the crux of the series evtonlinsights.com is writ­ing. What is the fea­si­bil­i­ty of air taxis fly­ing ath­letes and spec­ta­tors over Paris dur­ing the Olympics? What might be the actu­al real­i­ty? What is your per­son­al view?

First, it is a very ambi­tious goal and high­lights the aspi­ra­tions of the indus­try. The Olympics offer a focus, a future objec­tive to aim for.

I am 100 per­cent con­fi­dent there’ll be a rich num­ber of eVTOL demon­stra­tions over the Paris skies dur­ing the Games, but whether there’ll be pas­sen­gers on-board is anoth­er mat­ter. The objec­tive is to pro­vide com­mer­cial ser­vices. It all depends on how many eVTOLs have gained full cer­ti­fi­ca­tion by then. It is high­ly attrac­tive for those com­pa­nies who have, as this offers a first-to-mar­ket poten­tial. What I’ve seen and heard in dis­cus­sions, every­thing will be done to make com­mer­cial flights hap­pen. We have two years left. A lot can hap­pen in that time.

Joby Avi­a­tion the pri­ma­ry eVTOL Fly­ing Ath­letes and Spec­ta­tors Around the Paris Olympics? (Pic: Joby)

Sure­ly, only Joby and EHang may have secured full cer­ti­fi­ca­tion by the Olympics. If so, could these two be fly­ing com­mer­cial­ly?

I agree with you about Joby as it is the front-run­ner. I ques­tion EHang though. I am not sure whether the com­pa­ny would be allowed to fly in the U.S or Europe under its present Chi­nese cer­ti­fi­ca­tion. In Europe, Volo­copter is the leader and are best placed to achieve EASA full cer­ti­fi­ca­tion in time for the Games.

The num­ber one chal­lenge is pub­lic safe­ty. The idea that an air taxi crash­es dur­ing a demon­stra­tion over Paris when bil­lions of peo­ple are watch­ing on TV is unthink­able. Even worse, God for­bid, if it is car­ry­ing pas­sen­gers.

We all know pub­lic safe­ty is the num­ber one issue and why the tri­als at Cer­gy-Pon­toise are so impor­tant. So long as every­thing is ful­ly test­ed, ver­i­fied and proven, I don’t see why eVTOLs will be unsafe. Every­one involved in this project is striv­ing to make the indus­try as safe as can be.

These craft are not toys. The tech­nol­o­gy is based on many years of avi­a­tion her­itage and expe­ri­ence along­side the same high stan­dard of reg­u­la­tion found in today’s avi­a­tion indus­try.

Giv­en the Paris Olympics are just two years away, what are the most impor­tant aspects to be resolved between now and then?

The tri­als at Cer­gy-Pon­toise is first and fore­most about build­ing con­fi­dence. There are not just one or two aspects to focus on, but the whole end to end ecosys­tem. The prepa­ra­tions lead­ing up to the Olympics whether they are to do with tech­nol­o­gy, ground to air com­mu­ni­ca­tion, or reg­u­la­tion, will be com­pre­hen­sive and rig­or­ous; to make the demon­stra­tions and poten­tial com­mer­cial flights at the Paris Olympics as safe as pos­si­ble.