The Falkland Islands Government has informed that an agreement has been signed with Ascension Island Government to guarantee travelers from the Falkland Islands ten seats on each flight connecting Ascension and St Helena – known as the St Helena Airlink. This agreement removes the risk of travelers from the Falklands not being able to book a seat by guaranteeing availability.
The Ascension Islands Government Resources Directorate has announced new travel arrangements that will enable residents of St Helena to transit between the Falkland Islands and St. Helena via Ascension. The UK Ministry of Defense have introduced these arrangements with immediate effect following consultations with the FCDO, AIG, SHG and FIG.
London media is reporting a Home Office minister confirmed the UK Government is looking at “additional measures” following reports that plans to send asylum seekers to Ascension Island could be revived.
The UK Government is reportedly considering reviving plans to fly people who arrive in the UK by unauthorized means to Ascension Island. Multiple reports say ministers and officials are considering the island as a “plan B” if the scheme to send migrants to Rwanda fails. plan B” if the scheme to send migrants to Rwanda fails.
According to a piece published by the Daily Express and credited to their Defense Editor, Marco Giannangeli, British specialists managed to secure a vital pipeline for the South Atlantic, following an intelligence tip-off that it was being targeted by Russian saboteurs.
The runway at Georgetown Wideawake Airport on Ascencion Island will be repaired by 2022 allowing AirTanker-operated A 330-200 flights to return, Fluor, the company which won the contract, said in a statement.
During remarks at the close of the recent G7 summit in Biarritz, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that the Aichi targets—goals set nearly a decade ago as part of the United Nations’ Strategic Plan for Biodiversity—must be “replaced with new, more ambitious targets to help us get back the biodiversity that this planet is losing, and has lost.”
If United Nations goals are met, 10% of the world’s oceans could be marine reserves by 2020, but it has been suggested that many of these reserves will represent protection on paper but not in practice. However, new research trialling remote satellite monitoring of illegal fishing activity in the protected waters of Ascension Island from the Oxford Program of Sustainable Oceans suggests that here at least these “paper park” fears are not fully supported by evidence.
United Kingdom ministers are unilaterally considering stopping EU access to the Galileo satellite earth station in the Falklands and Ascension, according to reports in the UK press. The move comes after Brussels chief Brexit negotiator, Michael Barnier, stated that UK companies would have to be excluded from the development of sensitive Galileo infrastructure following Brexit due to security concerns.
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) is pleased to announce that a final decision has been taken on the location of the refuelling hub for the South Atlantic Airbridge (SAA). The SAA will continue to transit through Sal, Cape Verde until 2020, when the Ascension Island runway resurfacing project is expected to be complete.