For those fancying a trip from Belfast to Liverpool or Barcelona to the Balearic Islands but concerned about the carbon footprint of aeroplane travel, a small UK company is promising a surprising solution: commercial airships. The routes for the 100-passenger Airlander 10 airship include Barcelona to Palma de Mallorca in 4½ hours. HAV says the CO2 footprint per passenger on its airship would be about 4.5kg, compared with about 53kg via jet plane. Tom Grundy, HAV’s chief executive, who compares the Airlander to a “fast ferry”, says: “This isn’t a luxury product. HAV claims independent estimates put the value of the airship market at $50 billion (€40.9 billion) over the next 20 years.

Source: The Irish Times May 26, 2021 11:03 UTC