Other extravagances - having "full blown" ATC facilities - including approach and tower frequencies. With the miniscule traffic expectation, the whole of the ATC could be handled by a FSO who just needs to check that no vehicles are on the runway then issue a "land at your discretion" instruction and pass the wind info. You could train up a local Saint to do that in a few hours
Have you ever worked in a ATC tower environment?
It's not necessarily what you do but what you are trained to do, whether the tower has one or two frequencies is nitpicking because one controller can work both frequencies but it's when the unexpected, the unforeseen, happens that the guy(s) in the tower come in to their own, in my previous life in ATC I dealt with emergencies whereas an aircraft crew might expect one's undivided attention whilst there are crash wagons, ambulances calling on a ground frequency whilst the telephones are going crazy etc. etc. etc. and you suggest that the person in overall charge of this can be trained in a few hours?
The terminal at St Helena is nothing shy of ridiculous for the size of the airport.
Numerous check in desks, conveyor-belt systems, arrivals belts, numerous xray machines etc....
Why?
The airport was never going to get more than 100 pax a week
Is the airport not supposed to be developing tourism to the island, what are they supposed to build, an unmade strip with a portakabin and if you want to go for a pee there's a bucket in the corner?
100 pax per week? ... Just reading here I've read that the original, well early, plan was for B737-800 operations which seat significantly more than 100, I've also read of ideas of B757 operations from/to UK, last I heard B757's seat in excess of 200 pax, I've also read of medivac and bizjet operations whilst SA Airlink's planned operations are yet to be divulged.
These days I'm a self-employed hotelier, I built my ten rooms when I didn't have a single guest, is it being suggested that I should only have built one room and then call the builders back to build another room each and every time I reached capacity?
The airport, the terminal, is to be the gateway to St Helena and as such there is nothing wrong with it being state of the art and welcoming, in comparison the airport of the island that I live on, they only built the terminal a few years back only planning that there would only be one aircraft on the ground at a time, the departure lounge can only accommodate an ATR72 load, there are only two check-in desks, and already we're often up to two aircraft, of two different operators, on the ground at the same time so two different airlines need to share two check-in desks, the departure lounge simply isn't big enough and as for security, searching every item of baggage by hand, well it's a nightmare.
If only we had a terminal like St. Helena!