Hovertravel could soon be flying from Ryde to Portsmouth Harbour – or maybe even Portsmouth to Southampton – following a successful trial run with the company’s Island Flyer craft this morning (Friday).
Hovertravel’s craft are normally to be found crossing the Solent between Southsea and Ryde, but today 1 of the Flyers flew into the harbour for an inaugural visit and trial.
Island Flyer left Southsea and passed through the entrance to the historic harbour before performing several manoeuvres and observing how the craft operates at the low speeds suitable for harbour traffic.
Neil Chapman, managing director of Hovertravel explains:
“We wanted to see how the 12000 craft would operate in Portsmouth and capture some iconic images of Hovertravel against this famous waterfront, so we organised a trial and chose a day when we would be seen by the thousands of people visiting Gunwharf Quays for Black Friday.
“Our pilots, crew and engineers all agreed that this was a highly successful first visit to Portsmouth Harbour and the craft exceeded our expectations for this trial.
“Hovertravel is always interested in exploring new opportunities across the Solent and we aspire to further develop our offering in 2018.”
