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The 'world's most useless airport' is finally getting a scheduled service

The airport officially opened in June 2016, but with a major proviso: large jets cannot land there due to dangerous winds - Credit: Simon Benjamin / Alamy Stock Photo
The airport officially opened in June 2016, but with a major proviso: large jets cannot land there due to dangerous winds - Credit: Simon Benjamin / Alamy Stock Photo

A £285m airport dubbed “the world’s most useless” is finally getting its first scheduled service – but nobody knows when it will start or how much fares will cost.

The saga of St Helena Airport, on the tiny British Overseas Territory in the middle of the Atlantic, has involved a decade of delays, overspending of taxpayer cash and accusations of incompetence. So, despite vagaries about launch dates and ticket prices, the announcement of a weekly service by South African carrier Airlink, from Johannesburg with a stop in Windhoek, Namibia, ought to be welcomed by residents on the remote island, which sits more than 1,200 miles from the nearest major landmass and is usually accessed via a five-night ocean crossing on the RMS St Helena, one of the last working Royal Mail ships in the world.

The British government first announced plans to build an airport on St Helena in 2005, but problems finding a suitable construction firm and financial pressures brought on by the global recession meant contracts were not signed until 2011.

The airport officially opened in June 2016, but with a major proviso: large jets cannot land there due to dangerous winds. On April 18, 2016, a test flight operated by Comair for British Airways saw a Boeing 737-800 need three attempts to make a successful landing, and since its opening only small private planes have been cleared to use it.

An official report late last year said it was “staggering” that the impact of difficult weather conditions was not foreseen and described the airport - dubbed by some as the “world’s most useless” - as “a £285 million white elephant [that] serves neither its people nor the taxpayers footing the bill”. That figure works out at nearly £63,000 for each of territory’s 4,534 residents. 

The tiny outpost has just 4,534 residents - Credit: Darrin Henry - Fotolia
The tiny outpost has just 4,534 residents Credit: Darrin Henry - Fotolia

A first commercial flight, operated by Airlink using an Avro RJ86, and with 60 paying passengers on board, landed in May. But that the flight - which was delayed by an hour - was only run because two RMS St Helena voyages were cancelled so the ship could undergo repairs.  

The opening of the airport was originally supposed to see the Royal Mail ship retired, and authorities in 2015 ambitiously estimated that up to 30,000 people a year could visit St Helena once air links were established.

The once-a-week scheduled service, to run on Saturdays, won’t quite carry that number. Airlink’s jets will only be cleared to carry 76 people, so even if every seat is filled it will only fly 3,952 a year on each leg. The passenger limit will ensure the aircraft are light enough to takeoff and land while avoiding a stretch of runway where dangerous winds are most common.

The South African airline Airlink will operate the weekly flights - Credit: GETTY
The South African airline Airlink will operate the weekly flights Credit: GETTY

A start date has not been announced, nor have details about airfares. The UK Government has already agreed to subsidise the operation to the tune of £1.9m for the first year, which equates to more than £36,000 per return flight – or at least £480 per passenger.

The flight time from Johannesburg is around six hours.

“Scheduled air services is what is needed to build a sustainable tourism industry on St Helena,” Dr Niall O’Keeffe, chief executive for economic development at Enterprise St Helena, told The Independent.

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“As a remote small island developing state, the onset of air services is crucial to enable the development of a sustainable economy in the long-term. The opportunities for tourism and investment as the island opens up as the newest air destination in the world, cannot be overstated.”

The island’s director of tourism, Christopher Pickard, said: “As much as we are going to miss the RMS, not everyone has two weeks to travel to and from the island by ship.”

St Helena suits lovers of unspoiled wilderness, nature and wildlife, walkers and, as the location of Napoleon’s imprisonment after the Battle of Waterloo, history buffs.

The climate is mild for much of the year, with temperatures hovering between 20C and 27C, and while English is the main language, the island’s cuisine has Malay and Chinese influences.

St Helena is the second oldest remaining British Overseas Territory after Bermuda
St Helena is the second oldest remaining British Overseas Territory after Bermuda

Gavin Bell visited back in 2011, on one of the RMS Saint Helena’s final sailings from Britain, and described his experiences for Telegraph Travel.

“While St Helena, with its historic buildings and friendly population, is well worth a visit, a voyage on the RMS is an experience in itself,” he said, going on to describe an officers' performance of The Pirates of Penzance.“Designed to carry cargo and 128 passengers in comfort and style, she is a rare vessel,” he added. “The only other like her sails from Tahiti to remote French Polynesian islands. The Queen Mary 2 is the only other ship bearing the Royal Mail title.

“The two RMS ships could not be less alike. There are no dancing girls on the Saint Helena (unless you count deckhands in pantomime drag), no big bands and no late-night casino. Entertainment is of the homegrown variety, from pub quizzes to deck quoits and cricket matches on the sun deck.

"But there is a sense of adventure that no big cruise liner can match, as she ploughs her way towards the lonely isle that was Napoleon's last place of exile. When I sailed on her, the passengers included the widow of an island bishop returning to see a church built in her husband's honour, and a South African eye surgeon with a ponytail who had been called to perform operations. There was also a retired pilot from Sussex keen to trace his ancestors, notably the fourth governor of the island, who was expelled by a Dutch invasion in 1672.”

Just 10 miles long and with a population of 4,255 at the 2008 census, St Helena is the second oldest remaining British Overseas Territory after Bermuda. It was discovered by the Portuguese in 1502 and was colonised by Britain in 1658 on the orders of Oliver Cromwell.

Napoleon died there in 1821, after six years in exile. His last residence, Longwood House, is now a museum.

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