Rome airport readies for flying taxis by 2024

Aeroporto Guglielmo Marconi di Bologna SpA

27/10/2021 14:52

ROME, Oct 27 (Reuters) - Passengers flying into Rome from
2024 onwards will be able to go airborne for their taxi ride
into the city centre too, if a project between the company
operating its main airport and a German startup lifts off on
schedule.
    Startup Volocopter hopes to make Fiumicino Airport a pioneer
site for the rotor-bladed, battery-powered two-seater air taxi
it is developing.
    Aeroporti di Roma (AdR) CEO Marco Troncone said the journey
in one of the craft, which takes off and lands vertically, will
take around 15 minutes, compared with 45 minutes or more by car.
    The initial cost of a ride will be around 150 euros ($175),
a price likely to drop as the service goes mainstream, he said. 
    "The connection will be very swift," he told Reuters at
Fiumicino, where Volocopter was showcasing a prototype. "It will
be a silent journey and ... the level of emissions will be
zero."
    Volocopter, founded in 2011, hopes to get a commercial air
licence from the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) within
three years and then start operations, its Chief Commercial
Officer Christian Bauer said.
    Rome is seen as the third most suitable European city behind
Paris - where Volocopter said in June it hoped to have a service
in operation in time for the Olympic Games  - and Berlin for the
development of air taxis, an EASA study showed.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N2RM2A8
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    ($1 = 0.8593 euros)

 (Reporting by Francesco Zecchini; editing by Agnieszka Flak and
John Stonestreet)
 ((Francesco.Zecchini@thomsonreuters.com;))