Saint Helena Airport

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This article or section contains information about a planned or expected new airport.

It may contain information of a speculative nature and the content may change dramatically as the construction and/or completion of the airport approaches, and as more information becomes available on it.

Saint Helena Airport is a proposed airport that was scheduled to be open by 2010, but it has now been stated by HMG that this is more likely to be 2011/2012 by which time the RMS Saint Helena will be retired. The airport is due to be built on Prosperous Bay Plain, on the east side of Saint Helena. A commercial company had hoped to build a new resort complex once the airport project was complete (see note on Shelco below). It is hoped that the airport will bring much needed economic growth to this isolated island economy.

The airport is currently proposed to have a runway of length 2,250 metres, and to be capable of accommodating twinjet passenger aircraft up to the size of the Airbus A320 and Boeing 737, these aircraft may potentially operate services to Ascension Island and Cape Town, and possibly Walvis Bay in Namibia, although the Ascension Island link is still subject to negotiation between the FCO and the US Defense Department.

According to Private Eye magazine, all of the companies tendering for the job of building and running the airport had withdrawn from bidding for the project to be funded by the Department for International Development (DfID). The local Access Office explained that the reasons were unclear but it seems the bidders considered the DfID has been unhelpful by not providing the possibility of on-site investigations in order to complete a detailed design before providing a fixed price for the project. According to the DfID's Director for Overseas Territories, his department remains committed to an airport for St Helena but at the time of the article there were no new bidders.^[1] DfID re-started the procurement process to identify a suitable Design, Build and Operate contractor in October 2006. Capability Statements are due to be received in February 2007, Atkins (the Consultants responsible for procuring the DBO contractor) remain cautiously optimistic, and both SHG and HMG remain fully committed to delivering Air Access to the Island.

[edit] References

^ "Departure Delayed", Public Eye, No. 1167, 15 September - 28 September 2006

[edit] External links

Shelco, one of the consortiums who were interested in building the airport, but only in conjunction with a new resort complex (including luxury villas to be sold to the rich and famous before even a brick was laid - See "Property Week" 30 Sept 2005) but were turned down by DFID and SHG.
DFID Website on air access
St. Helena portal web site