Catch your Virgin Flight up the Thames

FORGET the train, the tube and the taxis — the hippest way to reach central London from Heathrow Airport will soon be by a James Bond-style amphibious car.
Richard Branson’s Virgin Atlantic plans to offer business-class passengers a chance to beat the London traffic by taking to the Thames River in the sporty Gibbs Aquada.
Sir Richard wants to add the amphibious vehicle to Virgin Atlantic’s existing complimentary limousine and chauffeured motorbike service by the late northern summer – just a few months before the airline expects to begin flights to Australia.
Virgin estimates that using the Aquada will cut 20-30 minutes off the journey between Heathrow and central London. “Just as with our existing limos, those passengers travelling by Gibbs Aquada will be met off their flights by a chauffeur who will drive them to their home, hotel or office,” Sir Richard said yesterday.
“But unlike other limos, when the Gibbs Aquada hits traffic on its way to or from central London, the driver simply heads for the nearest slipway and takes to the Thames before rejoining the roads on the final leg of the passengers’ journey.”
The Aquada, which completed a record-making crossing of the English channel at the weekend, is touted by makers Gibbs Technologies as “the first road-legal high-speed sports amphibian”. The pound stg. 75,000 ($198,000) craft can reach speeds of 160km/h on land and about 48km/h on water.