Start date for St Helena

The island of St Helena’s long-awaited scheduled air service to and from Johannesburg and Cape Town is due to start on 14 October with weekly flights by Embraer E190 operated by the South Africa-based carrier Airlink.

Tickets for the weekly flights went on sale on Friday and are available online via the Airlink website and through all normal IATA global distribution systems. 

Flights will use the new £285m St Helena Airport, the building of which was heavily criticised because of cost and a subsequent delay in starting scheduled flights after a test flight by a Boeing B737 encountered windshear problems. 

The airport has been operational for charters and medevac services and its prospects improved after Airlink carried out test flights of its own using the Embraer, which is smaller than a B737 (BTN  12 December 2016  and  BTN  28 August).

Airlink’s weekly service will operate from Johannesburg to St Helena via a refuelling stop at Windhoek International Airport in Namibia. The carrier has also scheduled a service from Cape Town to coincide with the Johannesburg's flight's arrival in Windhoek on both the outward and return leg of the journey.

www.flyairlink.com

www.sainthelena.gov.sh

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