As a rule of thumb the smaller the aircraft the more expensive per bum on seat it is to operate but a larger aircraft needs to fill with bums on seats.

Based on direct operating costs what is more cost effective to operate, an A318 with an 80% load or an A320 with a 60% load?

Disappearing nav-aids at St Helena
 

I've noticed (on StHelenaAirport.com) that the LF radio beacon (NDB) is no longer listed as one of the nav-aids at St Helena Airport. I wonder if it's been switched off or did it just fail and not been fixed?

I guess that not many aircraft using the airport these days would find an NDB useful - but that begs the question, why bother to install it in the first place?

The other mysterious disappearing nav-aid is the Honeywell "Smartpath" GBAS (enhanced satellite nav system) which I believe was installed at probably at least 10 or 20 times the cost of the NDB. I don't know if the Airlink Embraer E190 is equipped to use this system, but it alone might have provided a good approach aid to both runways instead of the LOC/DME system which only covers runway 20.

I see the Honeywell website still says that the system on St Helena is "deploying" - which it has said for at least the last 2 years. So I wonder why that expensive system is not yet in operation? Perhaps ASSI won't approve it - after all it "wasn't invented here"!

It is claimed ASSI has not had the man-power to certify it yet. Scandalous !

Now visible in Google Earth
 

Google Earth has recently updated its images for St Helena and it now shows the completed airport and access road in some detail. The image date is given as 7th April 2017.

Unfortunately, there seems to be a discrepancy between the image and the underlying terrain model, with the result that the runway appears anything but straight! A similar problem affects the new Ruperts Bay Wharf structure.

However, the terminal buildings etc appear reasonably as you'd expect. You can even see the windsock positions at each end of the runway, although I'm not sure I believe what direction they appear to be streaming in.

You can also see the various nav-aids. To the east of the runway is the NDB and various white blobs which I take to be the GBAS GPS receiving positions.

To the west of the runway you can see the relocated VOR and Localizer antennas. Both of these had to be repositioned to avoid them illuminating the ocean which caused bad multipath problems when the first calibrations were attempted.

Been running for a few weeks now. What loads ? What reliability ?

have the done the monthly extension to Ascension yet ?

The loads have not been announced and last weeks flight was delayed two days because of low ceilings and visibility. Ascension will be in two weeks. The transfer of Cape Town passengers at Windhoek has been suspended because of Namibian objections and only an outbound fueling stop is made there.

Just looking at the schedule, via WDH is still showing on SA Airlink's website, it is 6.25 hours outbound, 6.00 hours return, 1.25 hours turnaround in HLE and allowing for a 1 hour report that is a Flying Duty Period of 14.5 hours on a 4 sector day, I might be out of date but in my day the maximum FDP in much of Europe, on 4 sectors, was 11.75 hours.

And then they want to do Ascension also, a 6 sector schedule, I don't believe that there is any 'suitable accommodation' on Ascension so where the hell are they going to crew rest or change crew?

I'd imagine that there is a crew change in WDH, so one crew does WDH-HLE-WDH as a 2 sector duty day. Would that then allow them to do WDH-HLE-ASI-HLE-WDH as a four sector day?

There is not currently a crew change on the JNB WDH HLE JNB trip. On the JNB WDH HLE ASI HLE JNB trip there will be a layover at ASI and return the next day. The passenger transfer at WDH for CPT connections is not being allowed by Namibia so the flight goes non-stop HLE JNB. The outbound stop at WDH is only for fuel. The plan for diversion from HLE is currently back to Namibia, not an ASI alternate. CPT passengers connect at JNB.

Stopover on Ascension
 

As I understand it, there WILL be a stopover for the crew on Ascension Island.

The schedule is as per the normal weekly flight on Saturday, arriving at 1315 GMT on St Helena. The aircraft then departs at 1430 to Ascension, arriving 1630.

It then departs the next day, Sunday, at 1115, arriving back in St Helena at 1315. The return flight to JNB is then a similar time to the normal Saturday one.

As, I believe, the only hotel on Ascension closed recently following the demise of the regular air service, I assume that the flight crew will be accommodated elsewhere. Perhaps the US Base will offer a room or two - or there may be somewhere available in Georgetown, Two Boats or Donkey Plain from the British organizations on Ascension. Failing that, the weather is usually OK for camping!

Nice dormitory-style accomodation at "Tristar Village" as I remember!

There are minimum and legal standards of 'sutable accommodation' for crew members, i.e. the accommodation needs to be heated or air conditioned as may be applicable, it needs good curtains to control the level of light and it should be subject to minimum noise etc.

Obsidian Group has indeed been wound up. They operated the only hotel, a bar, a restaurant and had a small fleet of European spec Ford Fiestas for hire. Not sure whether the assets have been mothballed in case the island opens up, but it's bit of a blow.

Extract from recent St Helena Economic Development Committee minutes:

"Items discussed with the Airport Contracts Manager were charter flights & operations and the Open Skies Policy. The Air Access Office and the Airport are fully committed to accepting and assisting developing charter flights & operations subject to the Prior Permission Requirements for the Category C operations being met and the granting of a Flight Operations Permit by the Governor.

There have been several such operations in the 18 months the Airport has been operational.
Due to the stringent Extended Twin Operations Performance (ETOPS) requirements, which requires sterilisation of the Airport and extended airspace for long periods of time, only one ETOPS flight can currently be accepted on any one day. The latter does not apply to 3 and 4 engine aircraft.

As explained in the charter flights & operations paragraph above, the Air Access Office and the Airport will accept, subject to any operational condition, any aircraft capable of operating into and out of St Helena. This, however, is not the same as Open Skies that Europe, the UK and United States have. In reality, at this moment in time, St Helena could not achieve Open Sky Status since it is an Overseas Territory (OT) and subject to the regulations that apply thereto. It would be dependent on the UK Department for Transport (DfT), as the ‘parent’ sponsor to negotiate bi-lateral rights between two points. Additionally, St Helena is not a signatory state, nor can it be, to the ICAO Chicago Convection. We rely on the DfT to represent all the OTs at ICAO.

However, some OTs, like Bermuda and Turks & Caicos, have formed their own Directorates of Civil Aviation. This brings greater independence and the ability to formulate one’s own Civil Aviation Regulations. Doing as above is not a cheap process, is lengthy and will, for several years, require the buying in of appropriate skills, experience and expertise. An aircraft registry such as in Bermuda and Jersey and Guernsey in the Channel Islands can be very lucrative, but the costs, timescale and workload involved cannot be underestimated."

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

"There are minimum and legal standards of 'sutable accommodation' for crew members, i"

Does that apply in South Africa?

That sounds a nonsense on multiple grounds.

3/4 engine aircraft were never contemplated in the airport development, the B737 was long the aircraft of choice. If there can be only one such flight a day, why did they build such a palatial terminal ?

Surely, even if there is runway sterilisation once an aircraft is on its way, that would only be from it passing some equivalent of a Point Of No Return, which is only an hour or two out, not the whole day.

No other equivalent remote airport, such as Easter Island or those in Antarctica, is required to work this way.

We read above that for a flight to operate it needs to involve the Airport Manager (fair enough), an Air Access Office, and a permit from the Governor's Office. Just how many bureaucrats are involved in arranging a flight, and what do they do the rest of the time ?

It's a poor place - everyone is trying to get in on the act and stake out their patch

no doubt in time they'll be more flexible when/if demand picks up

In a previous life I worked for a DC8 cargo operator approached to fly fish from Easter Island to Japan, and Easter Island was surely island reserves arriving there, we couldn't carry fuel to divert to Chile, and we never heard of this sterilising the airport business ... But then how many people on St. Helena have any more than circa 18 months experience of managing an airport?

As a pilot you may not have heard of the no-operations until the inbound has landed unless you were trying to take off from the airport. With island reserves you are committed to landing at that airport and a disabled aircraft on the runway might take more than 2 hours to remove. It may be a more recent rule connected with ETOPs.

Invest in a large bulldozer as they used to do to carrier aircraft blocking the flight deck...........