Air Taxis Could Help L.A. Transport Fans During the 2028 Olympics

Where the Olympics go, eVTOLs follow. That’s one possible conclusion following last week’s news that Volocopter officially opened the world’s first Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) vertiport at Paris’ Aerodrome of Saint-Cyr l’École, while also flying its two-person VoloCity aircraft. Archer also released plans yesterday for a network of vertiports in and around Los Angeles, to accommodation its five-person Midnight eVTOL. The company said the network could be operational before the arrival of the 2028 Summer Games, perhaps even having the first location ready for the 2026 World Cup.

The Olympics may not actually be causative, but the needs of moving a lot of people and alleviating traffic during mass sporting events could spur the seismic jump necessary for creating an electric air taxi revolution. “California is showing the world what’s possible when you embrace innovation, entrepreneurship and clean energy to help solve your biggest challenges,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said following the Archer announcement. California will also host games for the 2026 World Cup.

For Germany-based Volocopter, the completion of the vertiport and hover flight on Thursday at the Saint-Cyr-l’École airport kicks off an “operational validation phase.” The first vertiport will serve as a model and data-collection experiment that will help establish a commercial eVTOL network in France. Volocopter hopes it will also be a template for other cities. The flight included “maneuvers to and from the vertiport, ground handling, communication with air traffic control, and battery charging and management at vertiports,” said a company statement.

The developments are the result of a partnership between Volocopter and Group ADP that started in 2020. “Everyone at Volocopter is incredibly proud of how far the company has come and what it means to fly today at Saint-Cyr l’École,” said CEO Dirk Hoke, during the event. “City launches take time to establish a foothold on the ground.”

Volocopter had originally hoped to begin official flights before the 2024 Games began, but had been waylaid for months by the Paris City Council and a climate activist group called Extinction Rebellion, both citing noise and air-traffic concerns. Extinction Rebellion wants to shut down all eVTOL activities in Europe.

Weeks ago, however, French national authorities approved the company’s two-seat craft for use, and Volocopter was preparing itself for showcase flights over the city with the Olympics in full swing, by landing on a float on the Seine River near the Austerlitz railway station in southeastern Paris. Volocopter saw the flight as an opportunity to show the world the use-case potential for small, electric aircraft.

But those plans were stymied by delays on certifying the engine, which Hoke blamed on a US supplier not delivering parts in time. “We are a little disappointed, but in any case we had said that we would not make any compromises with security,” he added.

“You could tell by his remarks that he was really hoping for a much grander debut of eVTOL operations during the Olympics,” Dan Sloat, executive director of the Advanced Air Mobility Institute told Robb Report. “But Dirk was confident that with their aviation infrastructure partners at ADP, they can still achieve connecting flights between Saint-Cyr l’École and the Issy-les-Moulineaux heliport in Paris before the end of this year.” The planned vertiport on the River Seine “may prove to be too controversial to be made permanent for now,” he added.

Europe’s aviation authority, EASA, still needs to give Volocopter a type certification before scaled operations can begin.

Archer, based in Santa Clara, Calif., earlier announced a similar network plan for the San Francisco area. The Silicon Valley firm has had a good year, recently conducting a successful test of its Midnight air taxi which transitioned from horizontal to vertical flight, while announcing deals with Southwest and United Airlines for future sales of the aircraft.

The Midnight is designed for back-to-back, 20- to 50-mile jaunts at up to 150 mph. Eventually, Archer aims to convert what are now one- to two-hour commutes to 10- to 20-minute flights via an extensive vertiport network. The company has also announced alliances with the Los Angeles Rams and USC to add vertiports at SoFi Stadium and the Southern Cal campus.

“This is a big moment for Archer,” said CEO Adam Goldstein in a statement. “LA is known for its horrendous traffic—our goal is to offer a safer, faster and sustainable alternative travel option.”

Sloat thinks the timeline, inaugurating its first LA vertiport in 2026 for the World Cup, and an operational network for the region for the 2028 Olympics, is feasible. “But for the next four years, the global AAM community needs to prioritize advocating for aviation-charging networks that are strategically placed so all forms of electric aircraft can provide regional air mobility,” he says.

Establishing infrastructure could be the most challenging part to creating regional eVTOL networks, according to several leading eVTOL makers that Robb Report visited in Silicon Valley last month.

The manufacturers, says Sloat, would do well to follow Volocopter’s lead by partnering with EMS providers. “ADAC, the German emergency medical service, is working with Volocopter to integrate their eVTOLs along with their conventional helicopter fleet,” he says. “The EMS use case is the greatest opportunity for eVTOLs to prove objective value to communities. If public-safety use cases are first and foremost, then the ultimate goal of public trust has a much better chance of succeeding.”