Saint Helena Airport - In 2005, the British Government announced plans to construct an airfield on Saint Helena, which was initially expected to be operational by 2010, however this project was 'paused'.   Meantime Andrew Weir Shipping continued to manage the RMS ST. HELENA, the 1990 built Royal Mail Ship that operates between Cape Town and Saint Helena.   The ST.HELENA also makes regular shuttles continuing to Ascension Island with some voyages serving Walvis Bay on route to/from, or occasionally instead of Cape Town.   The ST. HELENA used to visit Portland (Dorset)  twice a year with normal calls in the Spanish ports of Vigo (northbound) and Tenerife (southbound) but since October 2011 that ceased with the ship making a final voyage from the English port and is now Cape Town based.

Saint Helena Airport is proposed airport will be constructed from 2012-2015  and in July 2010 the much delayed project was finally agreed with a 6,070 foot concrete runway to be built using UK taxpayer money, with the Island's Governor announcing in November 2011 that the construction contracts to have been eventually signed and the airport is expected to open in 2015.   The RMS ST. HELENA will thus be retired and it is hoped  that the airport will bring economic growth to the isolated island economy which, in the long term, is expected to lead to financial self sustainability and an end to UK budgetary aid.   The local media reports that the final sailing of the ST.HELENA will be in December 2016, and that the crew have already been notified of their impending redundancy.

 

An RAF TORNADO GR4 requires a runway of half that size, and it just over 800 miles from Ascension Island - but how many tanker aircraft would be required to get one from the UK the 4,200 miles to Ascension (bearing in mind the VULCAN operation in 1982!) ?