MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

British Antarctic Survey in new bid to fly from Falklands

This coming summer 11 Dash-7 flights are scheduled to travel from the Falklands

The British Antarctic Survey (BAS) is standing by its policy to use the Falkland Islands as its gateway to the frozen continent. That’s the message delivered by John Pye, head of logistics at BAS, who was in the Islands for a whistle-stop visit at the weekend.

He visited the Falklands days before attending a meeting of the Council of Managers of Antarctic Programmes in Punta Arenas, the city which now plays host to BAS aircraft in the summer.

The Falkland Islands’ relationship with BAS traces back many decades and a large number of people were upset when BAS announced last year that they could no longer base their aircraft in the Islands, following a decision by the government to limit the use of Stanley Airport to small aircraft due to fire fighting restrictions.

Mr Pye said BAS and the government were working together to find a solution to develop a case for the safe operation of the BAS aircraft from Stanley Airport: “It’s in both our interests – our preference is always to work from the Falklands.”

This coming summer, there are 11 Dash-7 flights scheduled to travel from the Islands, using Mount Pleasant. However, Mr Pye said: “Our preference is to work from Stanley.”

Speaking to Penguin News at the weekend, Mr Pye said the move by BAS to base their aircraft in Punta Arenas was not clear cut and other issues such as accommodation shortages had had an effect on the decision to move to Southern Chile.

He said: “Accommodation has become trickier with the Upland Goose closing; we have now talked about producing a list of people who could provide accommodation

in the case of emergency.”

Changes in the operation of the Ministry of Defence airbridge had also had an effect: “Up to 2000, all of our people moved on the airbridge. Then it changed and we only managed to get 60 per cent of our people on there.” He added: “It’s all practicalities – but we do want to work through here.”

At a meeting of the Development Board held on Tuesday, the government’s Chief Executive Tim Thorogood reported on the talks Mr Pye had with representatives of the Chamber of Commerce and the government.

He said there were a number of areas in which BAS could be helped to undertake more activity in Stanley and that, while it was “early days,” he was reasonably confident a safety case could be produced that could allow the use of Stanley airport by the BAS aircraft.

Roger Spink, president of the Chamber, said the relationship with BAS was important: “We need to promote the Falklands as a gateway to Antarctica; it’s another source of revenue.” ( Penguin News).-