LE BOURGET: Paris aims to give visitors to the 2024 Paris Olympics a real flying start by offering airborne taxis to tournament sites straight from the airport. Paris – the City of Light will ferry visitors and players in airborne flying taxis to tournament sites straight from the airport.

Arrivals in the City of Light currently face an hour-long distance by train or bus into town from Charles de Gaulle airport to the north of Paris.

“In 2010, for the first time, more than half of humanity was living in urban zones and we think we shall surpass 60 percent by 2030,” said Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury. The time had now come to vault up to “the third dimension” of local commutes — air, he said.

“If we have the conviction that in the next five, 10, 15, 20 or 30 years low altitude is a space to be conquered we have to put in place the conditions today,” said ADP Group’s executive director general Edward Arkwright.

VTOL (Vertical Take-off and Landing) converts are already sprouting in number as the world looks to move beyond — or rather, above — today’s saturated motorways and growing environmental concerns.

For aircraft manufacturer Airbus, airport manager ADP and RATP, which manages Parisian public transport services, the Games are a chance to showcase French savoir-faire in urban mobility.

In order to make VTOL a reality by 2024, ADP is working alongside Airbus, which has for some years been involved in full electric propulsion urban mobility schemes.

The manufacturer already has two prototype models — the single-seater “Vahana” and the four-seater variant “CityAirbus”.

Faury explained that “the two projects will converge towards a vehicle that will respond to first cases of use.” “This project reduces constraints not only in terms of infrastructure but also concerning air traffic as it involves experimenting in a specific (air) corridor,” said Jean-Louis Rassineux, head of aeronautics and defence issues for Deloitte. (Agencies)