Air update

Virgin Atlantic is getting on board a partnership to pioneer zero carbon-footprint, vertical take-off, short-haul UK air travel.

The carrier founded by Sir Richard Branson has teamed up with Vertical Aerospace to explore the purchase of up to 150 eVTOL (electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing) sustainable and zero emissions aircraft to deliver a Virgin Atlantic branded domestic network, starting with hubs at Heathrow, Gatwick and Manchester.

The next-generation fully-electric VA-X4 has a range of more than 100 miles and it will carry a pilot and four passengers. It has four tilting rotors at the front, stowable rotors at the rear and flies at up to 202mph in near silence.

Journey times could, for example, be cut from 1hr 30mins by road from Cambridge to Heathrow to just 22mins.

Virgin Atlantic chief Shai Weiss said the partnership would combine the ‘’design, engineering and manufacturing expertise of Vertical with the award-winning customer experience and operational excellence of Virgin Atlantic”. virginatlantic.com

Budget carrier Wizz is launching its first UK domestic services with flights from Doncaster Sheffield and Cardiff to Jersey.

The twice weekly staycation specials will start on July 9, costing from £17.99 one-way.

A spokesman for the Hungarybased airline said: “The Wizz Air UK team is working hard to ensure that summer 2021 is not cancelled, by continuing to provide low-fare flights to the destinations that our UK customers love to travel to.

“After an extremely challenging year we know that our customers are looking to get away and Jersey has it all.”

wizzair.com

Almost one-fifth of brits are aiming to take up a new adventure sport or outdoor activity after the pandemic. A study by Decathlon

found attitudes to exercise have changed over the past year, with hiking and trekking, trail running, wild camping and mountain biking on the wish list.

decathlon.co.uk