Rome airport reveals plans to incorporate flying taxis

(CNN) — Passengers arriving in Rome by plane will also be able, from 2024, to fly by taxi to the city center, if a project between the company that operates its main airport and a German startup goes underway as planned.

The Volocopter company hopes to turn Fiumicino Airport into a pioneer location for the two-seater air taxi with rotor blades that it is developing.

The general director of Aeroporti di Roma (AdR), Marco Troncone, said that the trip in one of the ships, which take off and land vertically, will last about 15 minutes, compared to 45 minutes or more that it usually takes by car.

The initial cost of the trip will be about 150 euros (US $ 175), a price that will likely drop as the service becomes more widespread, he said.

“The connection will be very fast,” Troncone told Reuters from Fiumicino, where Volocopter was showing a prototype. “It will be a silent, zero-emission ride.”

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Volocopter, founded in 2011, hopes to obtain a commercial air license from the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) within three years and then start operating, said its commercial director Christian Bauer.

Rome is considered the third most suitable European city for the development of air taxis, behind Paris – where Volocopter said in June that it hoped to have a service up and running in time for the 2024 Olympics – and Berlin, according to a study by the TO THAT.