passengers on long-haul flights who decide to enjoy an in-flight movie can also indulge in lip-smacking ice cream made in Yorkshire.

As they settle into their luxurious seats, the cabin crew offers them a juicy iced-lolly all the way from Cononley.

The Yorkshire Dales Ice Cream company has a deal with Virgin Atlantic to provide it with real dairy ice-cream surrounded by lip-licking raspberry and passion fruit.

Gillian Emmott, who works in sales, said: "It's a small stick-ice which passengers are offered when they watch the movie. It's very tasty and made with real dairy ice-cream."

The ices are offered on long-haul outward bound flights from Britain throughout the world.

"We have the e-mail number of the company on the wrapper and we've had lots of messages from people in America saying how much they like them.

"We even had someone from the US visit us to see where they were made when he was visiting Britain," said Gillian.

The Richard Branson deal is just another example of business nous reaping rewards for the family firm run by Tim and Liz Wilson.

With the recent hot weather, there has been a run on demand for Yorkshire Dales Ice Cream.

Mrs Wilson set up the business with her husband in 1984 with a staff of just six. They now employ 75 and are the biggest independent manufacturer of dairy ice cream in the country.

"We have been very fortunate and had a rapid growth - 27 per cent last year and up on that this year," she said.

The contract with Richard Branson's Virgin Atlantic was just one of a number of deals the company had with other major companies to supply ice-cream. It also supplied the frozen food giant Iceland with space pods, in vanilla strawberry and chocolate flavoured ice-cream balls shaped smaller than a pea which can be poured into a dish.

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