Hot off the press from The St Helena Independ
ent an update from Atlantic Star:
Dear Friends,
Thank you to those of you who have been in touch regarding
progress with our UK to St.Helena charter flights for 2016.
We have been quietly working through the necessary
permissions that are required by the UK Civil Aviation Author-
ity, UK Department of Transport, and St.Helena Government,
and we are now in a position to share a little more of where we
are in the process.
We have now established precisely what will be required by
each organisation and have agreed a means of providing the
necessary documentation for each of them. This has taken a
little longer than we would have liked but naturally the regula-
tion of a new airport in such a remote location means that
each step forward is taken with a good deal of caution. None-
theless we are confident that all of the necessary permissions
relating to our charter programme will be in place within a few
weeks from now.
This will allow us to release flight dates and times with cer-
tainty, but we have been advised that we will not be able to
commence ticket sales until the St.Helena airport certifica-
tion process is complete.
As many of you will know there has already been some de-
lays to the airport certification process associated with the
need to move some of the ground based navigation equip-
ment necessary for pilots to make safe approaches at
St.Helena. We are in contact with the Air Access Team at
St.Helena Government and are confident that all the hurdles
to certification will be overcome.
Based on the complexity of the certification process and the
work still to be done on the airport it would be premature to
give a precise date for certification and therefore we are not
yet able to announce the date that ticket sales will start.
We fully appreciate how frustrating this waiting period is for
those of you who wish to finalise 2016 travel plans. We share
that frustration and naturally we would love to be on sale right
now. We are certain that certification will be successful and
equally certain that our flights will take place as planned.
We have a provisional programme in place with TUIfly to pro-
vide two flights in late May and early June, a further pair in
October and a final pair around Christmas. We will provide
precise dates once our approval to operate from St.Helena
Government is in place.
We will provide more information by email and on our website
and social media channels as soon as the flight permissions
are in place. In the meantime thank you all for your continued
patience and support.
Warmest Regards
Richard Brown
Principal, Atlantic Star Airlines
A little more about the calibration process later in the paper:
Basil Read is currently taking part in a further round of desktop audits with the regulator, Air Safety
Support International (ASSI). Alongside this, work is progressing well on a number of fronts in relation to
preparation for Airport operations.
The outcome of the desktop audits is expected in February, and this will inform next steps, including the
requirements for an on-Island audit - needed in order to certify the Airport.