From today's St. Helena Independent:
Tender Process
On 7 December 2016, St Helena Government released a Re-
quest for Proposals to provide scheduled air services to St
Helena over a three year period. The
closing date for receipt of bids was 6 February 2017.
It is hoped to announce the preferred bidder in early summer
2017 (May/June on St Helena). Commencement of air serv-
ices will follow once the regulatory permissions are granted
and the necessary practical arrangements are in place.
General Lines
St Helena Airport has been granted an aerodrome certificate
by Air Safety Support International and is open and opera-
tional. Whilst it has not yet been possible to commence regu-
lar scheduled commercial air services to the Island, opera-
tions at St Helena Airport are underway and consist primarily
of one-off charter flights and vital medevac flights.
Work continues to understand better the conditions at St Helena
Airport, including the challenges of windshear. We are confi-
dent the body of knowledge being developed will be of signifi-
cant value to potential operators.
The Governor continues to chair weekly meetings of her senior
technical and planning staff in order to manage the issues,
liaise with DFID, make decisions, ensure the public are prop-
erly informed in a timely manner, and push forward all areas of
work. These meetings began as soon as the issue of windshear
became apparent and they continue. Councillors are repre-
sented at these meetings.
Enterprise St Helena, the Bank of St Helena and SHG’s Busi-
ness Support Initiative continues to offer financial and techni-
cal assistance to tourism-related businesses that might find it
challenging to operate given the delays to scheduled air serv-
ices. The Business Support Initiative is a relatively new ven-
ture, launched in September 2016.
DFID has established a Quality Assurance Panel for the St
Helena Airport Project, made up of highly qualified external
experts, whose role it is to provide external validation of any
technical decisions being proposed for the Project. The QA
Panel has reviewed the outcomes from a number of success-
ful tests flights, provided advice on the most appropriate air-
craft and flight procedures for the “prevailing conditions and
assessed extensive wind data reports (collected to the
end December 2016).
The Airport Project has also been reviewed eleven times since
2003 by theInfrastructure Projects Authority (IPA). The IPA is
the UK government’s centre ofexpertise for infrastructure and
major projects, reporting to the Cabinet Office and HM Treas-
ury. Meanwhile, medevac flights and charter aircraft continue
to operate at St Helena Airport, and the RMS extension is
providing certainty of access for St Helenians.
Comair
The agreement with Comair for the provision of a scheduled air
service to St Helena is still in place, albeit in a temporarily
suspended state whilst a more permanent, reliable solution
for the Island is considered.
Comair remain very much engaged with SHG on air service
provision issues.
SHG
24 March 2017
ST HELENA AIRPORT - Update
Not a lot happening at the minute!