MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

St. Helena flights now expected in 2011/12

Following concerns raised by consortia tendering for the construction of an airport on British Overseas Territory St Helena in the mid Atlantic, the building process has been delayed “with flights commencing 2011/12”.

United Kingdom Parliamentary Under Secretary of State Gareth Thomas said that in response to other concerns it has been agreed that, for the consortium that wins the new competition for the airport, some of the cost of unforeseen changes to the project will be shared.

These could include sharp changes in the cost of basic materials, such as cement and fuel, significant currency changes and any unexpected difficulties in excavation for the airport.

Gareth Thomas said that because of these changes to make the airport contract more attractive to the construction industry, "...procurement regulations require us to issue a new tender, and we have now placed a new advertisement in the Official Journal of the European Union".

"This will allow us to complete short-listing before issuing a new Invitation to Tender around April next year. This will mean an inevitable delay in the process of building the airport, and we now expect to see flights commencing in 2011/12.

In the meantime DFID will, of course, continue to support the running of the RMS St Helena". Meanwhile other work on the air access project continues.

"In parallel with work on the airport, we are pressing ahead with finding an airline to provide scheduled flights to St Helena. We have now received expressions of interest from six companies, and will be looking at these with a view to entering into negotiations with one or more of them early in the New Year" revealed the UK official.

But in spite of the delay "I have every confidence that we will be successful in realizing this exciting and unique development for the island and for the people of St Helena."

The new airport will be located on Prosperous Bay Plain - on the eastern coast of the island. It will incorporate a total runway length of 2250 metres, sufficient to support safe operation of long-haul jet aircraft such as the Airbus A320 and Boeing 737-800.

Source: Penguin News Falkland Islands