Airline for high-flying academics

An airline launched a new twice daily service between Cambridge and Oxford on Wednesday.

The flights are aimed at academics travelling between the two university cities and will take 22 minutes.

The airline, Sky Commuter, claims people travelling by road or rail could save themselves about two hours by using the service.

Teenage entrepreneur Martin Halstead had planned to fly the route with his own airline but later dropped the idea.

The inaugural flight departs from Oxford Airport at 0800 GMT on Wednesday morning.

Barry Considine, sales and marketing director, said "The re-introduction of this route offers a real alternative to academics and business travellers at an extremely cost-effective price."

Mr Considine said that tickets would cost £99.