Paris will become a no-fly zone to safeguard its wildly ambitious Olympic opening ceremony

Paris to implement no-fly zone to secure ambitious Olympic opening ceremony.

Paris Skies to Close for Olympic Opening Ceremony Security

 

Paris — In preparation for the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games on July 26, the skies over the Paris region will be shut down for six hours as part of a massive security operation, announced the Paris airports operator on Wednesday.

 

Augustin de Romanet, chairman of Aéroports de Paris, disclosed that airlines are being notified in advance about the closure and instructed to divert their flight paths away from the restricted airspace. "For six hours, there won’t be any aircraft over the Paris region," he stated on France Info radio.

 

The no-fly zone will encompass a radius of 150 kilometers (93 miles) around Paris, as confirmed by the civil aviation authority and Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin.

 

The unique waterborne ceremony scheduled to take place on the River Seine flowing through the heart of the French capital poses an unprecedented security challenge for Paris Games organizers, anticipating crowds exceeding 320,000 along the waterway.

 

To bolster aerial surveillance, at least one French military AWACS surveillance aircraft will monitor the skies during the Olympics, utilizing its advanced radar systems to detect any potential airborne threats, as previously disclosed by the commander of the French AWACS squadron to The Associated Press. Additionally, military aircraft stand ready to intercept any unauthorized flights entering restricted Olympic airspace.

 

In a separate development, de Romanet revealed plans for the experimental trial of small electric-powered airborne taxis over Paris during the July 26 to August 11 Games, marking a potential world first in aviation.

 

However, initial flights with passengers may be limited to experimental purposes by European air-certification authorities, de Romanet cautioned, rather than commercial operations. "We have high hopes that we will be able to carry passengers experimentally which will pave the way, over Paris, for the first flight in the world of an electrical vertical take-off aircraft," he elaborated.

 

Several companies are currently developing electrically powered aircraft capable of vertical take-off and landing, with some already conducting demonstration flights in a competitive race to realize environmentally sustainable air transport solutions.

 

Asserting the safety of these aircraft, de Romanet expressed his readiness to be among their passengers.

 

Nevertheless, critics have raised concerns about the potential noise and safety implications of airborne taxis traversing the skies of Paris, suggesting they may be accessible primarily to the affluent. Among the opponents of proposals to trial such taxis during the Games is Anne Hidalgo, the Socialist mayor of Paris, who has voiced reservations about their integration into select routes within the Paris region.