The first-ever commercial flight has finally arrived in St Helena, more than a year after the airport’s opening.
Reportedly costing £285.5million to construct, the airport hit the headlines after it was unable to accommodate commercial flights because of dangerous wind-shear.
As a result, the airport was cruelly dubbed “the world’s most useless”.
But the arrival of a South African Airlink Avro RJ-85 carrying 72 passengers from Johannesberg marked the start of a new era for the facility, with the government describing the occasion as a “history-making weekend”.
Airlink will now operate a weekly service to the island using an Embraer E90.
“The beginning of this commercial air service is St Helena’s link to the rest of the world and will transform the Island’s tourism industry, as well as the Island’s agriculture, fisheries, and construction,” said the government.
“Visitors previously would travel for a week to reach St Helena from South Africa and then another week to get back. The Airport means travel time will be less than six hours making it 20 times faster.”
St Helena is a British overseas territory with a population of 4,534 and is best known as the site of Napoleon Bonaparte’s imprisonment in the early nineteenth century.
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