A German airship operator is to start Zeppelin sightseeing flights over London's most famous landmarks from next month.

After two years of planning, five sightseeing flights of London onboard a Zeppelin airship will take off every day from July 10 and run for six weeks over summer.

The flights will take off from east London and climb to 2,000 ft above the Thames. The longest flights will see the airships cast shadows over Buckingham Palace, St Paul’s Cathedral and the Houses of Parliament before returning to its base at Damyns Hall airfield, Upminster.

Tours will last between 30 minutes and an hour and will accommodate 12 passengers per flight, with every ticket offering a window seat in the 35-foot long cabin.

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The airship will arrive in the UK on July 6 and commercial flights will operate from July 10 after four days of test flights.

Flights will be on offer until August 21 – the short season owing partly to safety restrictions, which stop the airship from flying during heavy winds, thunderstorms or fog.

According to manufacturers, the latest model, the Zeppelin NT07, is safer and more advanced than earlier models such as the Hindenburg, which famously crashed in New Jersey in 1937.

The 75metre-long NT07 is semi-rigid and filled with non-flammable helium gas. The cabin has seats for 12 passengers, one pilot and one flight attendant and although there’s a toilet onboard, in-flight catering is unlikely.

The 30-minute flights will travel from Upminster to Greenwich Palace, the 45-minute flights will reach St Pauls and the 60-minute flights will get as far as Buckingham Palace before returning east.

The company behind the tours is German airship operator, DZR GmbH, which will sell the London tours under the brand Stella Artois: Star Over London. It will be promoted by Rory Laing, a former contestant of the BBC reality show, The Apprentice.

The www.staroverlondon.co.uk website is expected to go live within a matter of days and corporate bookings are already being taken over the phone (020 7183 3911).

Tickets will cost between £185 and £360 depending on the length of the tour, but the company will also raise revenue from selling advertising space – it costs between £25-35,000 to daub images and messages on the aircraft. This morning, a deal was reached with Stella Artois to be the sole sponsor of the flights - its logo will adorn the sides of the Zeppelin.

Although DZR GmbH says it is ready to launch on July 10, the Civil Aviation Authority said it had yet to receive an application for approval. A spokesman told Times Online: “We have had no applications for approvals from UK operators of airships."

However, the airship operator insists it has received all required permissions and certifications from the CAA through the German parent operating company, DZR GmbH.

London isn’t the first destination for Zeppelin Tours. Airship Initiatives, which is also promoting the London tour, currently offers Zeppelin flights from Friedrichshafen on the shores of Lake Constance in southern Germany from £295 an hour. It has also offer flights in Tokyo and Osaka and is rumoured to be considering San Francisco for its next operation.

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