Both points are true. But in the circumstances, if they were to try a Citywing at an airport that gets one flight a week, it'll be really very highly noticeable.

I live on an island that, not now but only a few years back, only got two flights a week.

If there's a storm we don't get any flights, we don't get any boats, Coca Cola won't have any Coca Cola, San Miguel won't have any beer, there won't be fresh fruit & veg in the market, on occasions we have been without mains electricity for four days at a time, this is what it's like and we get on with it'

You city folk have had it too good and continue to think like city folk, us islanders are a tougher species :)

Well I had one eye to St Helena, which is used to the RMS not docking if it can't...

But I meant that it would be noticeable in terms of regulatory oversight!

There won't be a guy sitting thinking "I wonder how they got in when nobody else with that size of aircraft d... oh... There's another three planes coming..."

Proving flight on 21 August:
http://en.mercopress.com/2017/08/10/commercial-proving-flight-to-st-helena-with-35-passengers-next-august-21

France24 are trailing that they will be running a program on St Helena next Friday afternoon.

Anyone know, did they bother to send a film crew to location ?

what - send a bunch of TV people away for 3 weeks at the expense of France24?

Of course they did.................................... like Glasto for the BBC

Dunno....Parisians running gauntlet of exile. Extra moola for working in a hostile area ?

Napoleon was here :O?

SA Airlink flying circuits at St Helena as I write. I count 11 so far.

I also followed on FR24... most circuits for RWY20, few for 02...

Here are some pictures from the Jim George facebook site:

https://www.facebook.com/geoff.coope...9833328071138/

There seems to be some turbulence at the end of runway 20 and the wind is strong from the south.

More here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQiQtdq1C3g

That Youtube video was of the Comair proving flight last year, not yesterday's one.

It's interesting that the Airlink flight (ZS-YAA) returned all the way to Johnannesburg direct without stopping in Windhoek, which is what it will do in service, I believe. (That's so that you can get a connection to Johannesburge or Cape Town.)

Also interesting (at least to me!) is that FR24 tracked the flights up to about 280 nautical miles away from the island, with the aircraft at 37000 ft. That's a pretty good range for the ADSB receiver on St Helena. I wonder where it is?? It's obviously got a good view of the horizon towards the east to get that sort of range. And the final interesting thing: FR24 shows no other aircraft anywhere within the 200 odd nm range of the receiver - just illustrates how remote St Helena is aviation-wise.

Video etc
 

Hi all, I have been hoping/planning to travel to St Helena for a couple of years ...

A reasonable video of the landing is at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xwrr...ature=youtu.be

There still seems to be some windshear effects but I have now idea how significant this is.

For comparison, this is a video of the Comair 737-800 trying the same approach last year ... I would appreciate your comments on the differences:

https://youtu.be/MQiQtdq1C3g

(what strikes me is the difference in size between the aircraft, for one thing!)

Reports indicate four pilots were onboard - and are the crews that are planned to fly to aircraft on the actual revenue service. Also an Embraer test pilot accompanied them.

Yesterday they did more than 10 practise landings/touch and goes (it's not clear from FR 24 which). This is a link showing the practises:

https://www.flightradar24.com/data/a...s-yaa/#e901e48

The following quote refers to the Embraer test pilot:

''Captain (also Test Pilot and Flight Instructor), Joel Faermann, said the quality of St Helena Airport is, “amazing.”

Runway 20 (the Barn end) approach from the north, which proved problematic for Comair’s Boeing 737-800 in April 2016, was tested repeatedly by the Embraer team with low level passes, landings and full stops, and all declared, “very safe, very easy,” by Captain Faermann.''

Make of this what you will!
Cheers all ...

Airlink E190 back in JNB after 4:06 hr. 3686 km. non-stop from HLE. At HLE they did a lot of approaches in windy conditions over two days with two Airlink crews and an Embraer instructor pilot. They got a good taste of the wind shear.
A Delta 777 ATL-JNB passes near by and a Middle Eastern flight to South America and that's about it.
The airport is 1000' AGL and most inhabitants live at 1000 AGL and above if it is privately operated. Inbound aircraft even from Brazil to the west report VHF Tower contact over 200 nm. so data bursts can probably do a little atmospheric fringing. Combined VHF range of 1000' and 37000' is 273 Nm. No other radio signals down there.
FR24 says they have three ADS B receivers on St. Helena.

Well done BB you've won todays prize for spotting the deliberate mistake:-)

"Council considered the Airlink fares which range from £804 – £1,544 for a return ticket to Johannesburg and £846 – £1,586 for a return ticket to Cape Town.

It was also reported that Airlink has today received the ETOPs 120 approval from the South African Civil Aviation Authority and that it is anticipated that flights will commence on Saturday, 14 October 2017."

http://www.sainthelena.gov.sh/category/news/

Anyone got any idea what the range of fares means? Is it £804 for economy and £1,544 for business class? Or, perhaps, more likely, the lower fare if you book months in advance and the higher for last minute bookings?

A poster on the St Helena News & Travel Facebook page stated that those were the economy and first class fares. Quite a lot of discussion on there, including comments from Richard Brown of (I think) Atlantic Star.

Those prices don't seem unreasonable, for the type of aircraft and unfortunately reduced seating capacity.

I'd love to visit HLE, but from the UK it would still mean at least 11-12 hours direct to JNB, an overnight in JNB, then the flight to HLE. Can't go this year anyway, so I'll wait and see if anyone ventures a charter via somewhere like Windhoek, or Banjul as mooted previously.

As you have said, the lower fare is the initial estimate for economy and the higher is for what is called 'first' class.
The FAQ I note below states there will be the usual variety of ticket classes and prices but you have all the info the 'public' know at the mo ...

Baggage is 1 carryon plus 20kg for economy, 2 carryon plus 30kg for first.

See - http - http://www.sainthelena.gov.sh/wp-con...-July-2017.pdf

for fuller info ...

I was booked on the May 2016 Atlantic Star flights and have been planning my 'Ham Radio expedition' to St Helena for a couple of years...
Comments on the mentioned Facebook site are from Rich Brown and (I think) Aiden Walsh, both from Atlantic Star Airlines ...

Seems reasonable, and roughly what you'd have expected given the ferry fares. Given Eastern will (justifiably) have almost £500 off you for a return to Aberdeen, it also seems like exceptionally good value for a flight to such an offbeat place.

The annoyed person saying it's more expensive than a UK - Jersey flight... I dunno. I just dunno.