The Daily Mirror headline read: ‘World’s most useless airport’ finally gets its first commercial flight – and it’s LATE.
Well, it was an irresistable line.
The paper’s report of St Helena’s first commercial flight included a nice quote from tour operator Libby Weir-Breen, who had flown specially from Scotland. “I’ve never felt so emotional in all my life,” she said.
Japan, Germany, New Zealand, America… even the UK: the story pretty much flew round the world.
And people on the island helped tell to tell it. A video of the landing, shot by Geoff Cooper from one of the public vantage points, was re-tweeted to 12 million followers of America’s ABC News.
A picture by Ed Thorpe of the Devil’s Hole Black Rocks, on a part of the island few tourists will ever see, gained international exposure from Associated Press, which told of champagne and chocolates being handed out on the island-bound flight.
The historic flight from Johannesburg made all the BBC’s national radio news bulletins.
Ed Cropley’s piece for Reuters, transmitted to news platforms and print publications worldwide, declared that the airport brought Saints “another step closer to their inclusion in the 21st century.”
Then he spoiled it a bit by saying the island got the internet only 18 months ago – though it was true that the mobile phone network went public just days after the very first aircraft flight arrived from Africa in 2015 (a bit of a nuisance for reporters at the time).
He told how Craig Yon of Into The Blue took a booking from a group of Swedish divers within minutes of them reading online that the first flight had touched down safely.
But he might have been teasing, just a little, when he quoted Craig saying, “Things are really picking up. Before, I’d only check my emails once a day. Now I have to check them in the morning and the afternoon.”
The story in The Times was written by Michael Binyon, who spent several weeks on St Helena as a media adviser and knew what to make of it all. He disclosed that the Embraer aircraft took on enough fuel at Windhoek to allow it to circle the island for two hours if wind shear presented a problem.
The Times’s headline called the flight “nerve-shredding” – but then, Michael was quite candid about feeling nervous when walking in the steeper parts of St Helena. The headline contrasted with the comment made by one American passenger quoted by Michael: “Wind shear – my ass.”
Britain’s Daily Telegraph carried a lengthy preview piece, but noted that its travel team had been able to find unsold tickets for the inaugural flight on ebookers.com at £395 one-way.
Sadly, its piece was accompanied by a picture of St Helena’s Church on the island of Lundy, in the Bristol Channel: not the first time that image has featured in St Helena coverage.
The story turned up in some surprising places. DeathRattleSports.com was unusual in acknowledging the “colossal civil engineering challenge” involved in building the airport, though it didn’t convey the enormous scale of the achievement.
A write-up in Dive Magazine had some complimentary things to say about the island and its surrounding waters, especially the presence of whale sharks, following writer Mark “Crowley” Russell’s visit in early 2017. The magazine is somewhat specialised, but there could be strong interest among its readers in visiting St Helena.
Chris Morris’s opening paragraph for fortune.com might have caused a few disappointed sighs at the St Helena Tourism office.
“Ever wanted to visit the British island of St. Helena?” it ran. “Of course you haven’t. Virtually no one does. But now you can.”
Actually you always could, Chris – and lots of people did.
But then, Chris seems to have been a bit confused about the nature of islands, telling readers that St Helena “is literally in the middle of nowhere, floating in the Atlantic ocean between Brazil and the African coastline.”
Islands don’t actually float, Chris. And “literally” literally means… oh, never mind.
Emma Weaver’s well-researched preview of the flight in The Guardian says travel companies are actually showing interest in St Helena, “in a world where remoteness is seen as a luxury”.
The BBC also got muddled up about its seasons, stating that safety tests happened “in the summer”. Could the piece have been knocked out by a journalist in London who didn’t know that August is winter time in the southern hemisphere? (And this was on the BBC Africa pages!).
Bizarrely, the mistake was then repeated on the Radio New Zealand website, which apparently got it from The Guardian.
The Mail Online carried a lengthy, fact-filled piece alongside two agency reports, detailing the island’s history and attractions but also references to the amount of aid the island receives (the Daily Mail has a thing about overseas aid). Sadly, it blew up in the final few words:
“St Helena is a remote volcanic outpost covering just over 75 miles squared,” it declared.
On an island measuring ten miles by six at the widest points, that would involve a neat bit of land-reclamation, even for Basil Read. And “miles squared” is not the same as square miles: 75 miles squared is, let’s see… 75 times 75… that’s 5,625 square miles.
The website’s multi-level headline also muddled up the flight time and the length of the sea voyage to St Helena:
“The British overseas territory was previously only reachable by a six-hour boat,” it said. At that speed, no wonder the RMS has had propellor problems.
The BBC said the RMS was “a ship that sailed every three weeks”. So what did it do the rest of the time?
Inevitably, many outlets recycled the “world’s most useless airport” tag, without saying who was being quoted, or where the quote came from. It started appearing in various newspapers in May this year, and keeps cropping up. A parliamentary committee report called the airport “useless”, but “world’s most useless” is a big step up.
Governor Phillips had a firm response to all that. “I’ve seen the headlines about the world’s most useless airport,” she told Reuters, “but for St. Helenians, this has already been the most useful airport. It’s priceless.”
Ed Cropley, who is Africa bureau chief for Reuters, tweeted a departing shot of the runway that bestowed an even more flattering tag: “St Helena airport, certainly world’s most spectacular airport.”
The airport on St Helena has begun to receive weekly flights from South Africa. There are hopes that this development will increase tourism on the island, and boost its economy.
Before the airport was built St Helena was only accessible via a boat journey from Africa which covered thousands of miles and took weeks to complete. This made it difficult for people to reach the island. The building of an airport on the island did not initially solve this problem, as dangerous wind conditions delayed the start of regular flights.
Now, with the introduction of weekly flights, islanders and tourists alike can more easily reach St Helena. This increased flow of visitors could provide a much-needed boost to the island’s economy.
Tourists can, among other things, go diving, visit the various sites paying homage to St Helena’s long and varied history, or experience a tour of downtown Jamestown with guide Basil George.
A recent visitor to the island was a journalist from The Associated Press, a global online news platform based in New York City.
Read the original story here.
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St Helena’s dismal internet connection will deter people from travelling to the Island when its airport is built, according to a telecoms blogger in Germany.
Martin Sauter, “a thought leader” in the industry, is aghast that St Helena’s 4,000 residents have to share a broadband connection that has less than half the bandwidth of his own connection at home.
He lends his voice to a campaign to route a new undersea high-speed cable via St Helena.
‘The British government wants to build an airport on St. Helena to stimulate tourism,’ notes Sauter. ‘But really, who wants to go there when Internet connectivity is limited at best and your iPhone can’t communicate with the rest of the world? Ten years ago, this might still have worked. Today only those suffering from communication overload might consider it. I doubt one can fill planes that way.’
Saint blogger Johnny Clingham has also joined the criticism of St Helena’s internet connectivity. ‘The internet is overpriced and so slow as you can barely send a large attachment email on a daily basis or connect to a cloud service,’ he says.
‘Most users on St Helena… are aware that it could cost them a month’s wages if they used more that their capped limit.’
The internet connection is via an ageing satellite, and frequently drops out because of ‘sun outages’ that are advertised in the island newspapers.
The Connect St Helena campaign now reports (20 January) that the chief executive of the South African company laying the cable is willing to consider routing it via the island. However, there would be a cost of several million pounds.
The campaigners say that’s a small fraction of what the UK government is spending on the new airport.
But as Martin Sauter points out, ‘in the 21st century, connectivity to the rest of the world is not just planes and ships.’
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St Helenian Janet Lawrence has been named as Airport Project Director by the island’s government.
She says her role will be to ensure St Helena’s first-ever airport – costing nearly a quarter of a billion pounds – is opened on time and within budget.
‘There’s starting to be a real buzz and a sense that change is happening on St Helena, and we must capitalize on this,’ she says. ‘All too often we think that the catalyst for economic growth will be when the airport opens in 2015. In fact, the catalyst for change was actually when the airport contract was signed.’
The UK Department for International Development has welcomed Janet’s involvement in what it says it ‘the most significant investment ever made by the UK Government into an Overseas Territory.’
She starts work on 1 March 2012.
Read more on the St Helena Government website.
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Warnings have been sounded about the perils of having an economy based largely on tourism – just as St Helena is trying to do exactly that with the building of its airport.
Holidaymakers are seen as the great hope for liberating the island from dependence on overseas aid, but it puts islands “at the mercy” of the global economy, according to warnings from other UK overseas territories.
St Helena Tourism acknowledges the problem itself – reporting that visitor numbers have increased by 3% despite a downturn in the global tourism economy.
The concerns – in response to a UK government consultation – have just been made public in an independent report.
Warnings about seeking other sources of income came from the governments of the British Virgin Islands, the Falklands, the Cayman Islands and Anguilla, in the consultation on the future of Britain’s island outposts.
One Anguillan writer said: “Economy is too dependent on the tourism sector, and as a consequence is at the mercy of the global economy.”
The premier of the British Virgin Islands said falling income from tourism was having effects “across all sectors of society.”
A private comment to this website noted that St Helena was heading towards the same hazard: “We are trying to create a tourist-dependent economy.”
St Helena’s tourism plans: tunnel vision?
The same correspondent also picked up on a call from St Helena Tourism Association to protect the island’s main tourism asset – its heritage. “The Tourist Dept talks of the need to protect extraordinary historical sites of global significance, whilst destroying ten meters of Eighteenth Century pavement” – a reference to cobbles being broken up in Jamestown
Vince Thompson, chairman of the tourism association – an independent body – says the island’s economic development plan “quite rightly” concentrates on tourism.
But he also says it “does not give enough attention to the development of other economic activities.” He says he is continuing discussions on the point.
St Helena Government reports say improvements to the island’s health and education services depend on developing private enterprise, to capitalize on the opening of the airport in 2015.
Visitor numbers on St Helena rose by 3% in 2011. The number of people arriving by yacht rose by 11% – on top of a 15% increase the previous year. Cruise ship visits – not included in the overall figures – have also increased.
St Helena Tourism said: “This is especially encouraging when one considers that international tourism has suffered over the past couple of years on the back of the global recession.”
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People in the UK who want a stake in St Helena’s future are being urged to turn up to a meeting with the Secretary of State for International Development.
Securing time with Andrew Mitchell at Swindon on 19 May 2012 is something of a coup for the island. It is rare for UK community groups to be given free access to such a high-level figure.
But the event clashes with a talk being given only 30 miles away by former island governor Andrew Gurr, at the Friends of St Helena annual meeting.
Kedell Thomas, St Helena Government’s UK representative, said the clash was unfortunate, but it was the best date for the meeting with the Secretary of State because it coincided with a St Helena Day dance in Swindon.
“We have been talking about it for a while and that’s the best chance for him to meet Saints,” she said. “I think he’s really keen to have this meeting.”
Anyone can simply turn up – Saints and non-Saints – but if people can let Kedell know they’re coming it will take some of the guesswork out of the planning.
Mr Mitchell is expected to talk about the airport project and to refer to a White Paper the UK government is preparing on its relationship with its overseas territories.
He is an enthusiast for the role of the private sector in development: he set up a new division within the Department for International Development to encourage private investment in poor countries to generate jobs and trade – a strategy also being pushed on St Helena.
Kedell said it was important that people turned up at the meeting if they wanted to take advantage of the changes the airport might bring to the island. “The message is to encourage Saints to become involved in the island’s future.
“We want Saints to take the opportunity and be part of the new era. The opportunities are there but they might not be there in three or four years’ time because people will have gone in and staked their claim.”
The meeting has been set for 4 pm on 19 May, at the Jury’s Inn Hotel in Swindon – chosen because about 800 St Helenians live in the area, and more are expected to travel there for the dance.
The annual general meeting of the Friends of St Helena starts two hours earlier at the University Club in Oxford.
Although the formal part of the meeting is due to end at 2.45pm, it is due to be followed by a presentation of material collected by the late Trevor Hearl, an expert on St Helena affairs.
Andrew Gurr’s presentation – titled “Managing change in St Helena” – is scheduled to run until 5pm.
It may be that on this occasion, it’s the Friends who have to manage change.
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People trying to travel to and from British Islands in the South Atlantic have been held up for days – and in some cases, weeks – by a double whammy of transport problems:
The RMS St Helena has broken down, leaving dozens of people stuck in Cape Town or unable to leave St Helena and Ascension. A propellor has failed and it is not expected to depart until early May.
Cracks are reported to have appeared in the runway at Ascension, causing the cancellation of three flights between RAF Brize Norton and the Falkland Islands. Among those unable to fly home are workers and scientists returning from a tour of duty in Antarctica.
Many people bound for St Helena have already been waiting three weeks to leave South Africa, and it is reported that some are running out of money. Tourist passengers are understood to have abandoned their attempt to reach the extremely-remote island.
Over the Easter weekend, St Helena Government was attempting to negotiate to have a cruise ship diverted to St Helena. It was also considering chartering a plane to fly people home – but there are difficulties finding an aircraft certified for extended flying over the ocean and able to land on the island’s wind-plagued airport. Atlantic Star Airlines, which has been bidding to operate regular flights to the island, was known to have an aircraft available at short notice.
The ship failure added to the frustration of islanders, whose hopes of a regular air service were put on hold a year ago when severe winds at its new £286 million airport rendered it unsafe for most large aircraft.
The RAF expected to resume the twice-weekly air bridge between RAF Brize Norton and the Falklands by Friday 21 May, with a stopover in west Africa rather than Ascension.
Part of the runway at Ascension was reported to be undamaged and it was anticipated that a smaller aircraft would still be able to land to bring in workers and take off people whose flights had been cancelled.
Journalist Mike Olsson, owner of the St Helena Independent, has been providing regular updates for both St Helena and Ascension on Saint FM Community Radio and on Facebook:
Saint FM Community Radio is also carrying updates on its Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/saintcommunityradio/
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